


Never Ending

by dead_lilli



Series: Never Ends [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, One Piece
Genre: F/M, Finding a home, Immortality, M/M, Master of Death Harry Potter, MoD Harry, Overpowered Harry Potter, Tags May Change, psychologically damaged characters, sexually promiscuous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:07:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23501323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dead_lilli/pseuds/dead_lilli
Summary: A legend was told throughout the seas of a man named Evans. He was always described as a young man in his late teens with wild black hair, glowing green eyes, and pale skin. He would show up every few years, staying for at most a month, then disappear again into the sea not to be seen again for years. The legends told of his existence tell of a savior and god from out of this realm. The truth of his history is more unbelievable than any legend.
Series: Never Ends [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1715590
Comments: 52
Kudos: 644





	1. Chapter 1

A legend was told throughout the seas of a man named Evans. He was always described as a young man in his late teens with wild black hair, glowing green eyes, and pale skin that stood about 5’9’’ tall. He would show up every few years, staying for at most a month, then disappear again into the sea not to be seen again for decades. One every island the legend slightly changes from there. On some islands, legend has it that he is the son of Poseidon that rises from the sea only when a village needs help. On others, he is a warrior angel that arrives from heaven to defeat anyone that tries to destroy their town. The truth is almost more unbelievable than any legend. 

In the New World there is an island that is rarely reached by humanity. It is undiscoverable by any Log Pose and the surrounding ocean is covered in mist with a mind of its own. It exists only to trick any travelers away from its island. And that suits Evans just fine. Throughout the millennia that he’s been in this world, Evans had come to appreciate the silence. Making friends only to see them pass away, he gave up on that long ago. His only companion now has a red fire phoenix named Fawkes. 

Evans used to have a different name. But it was lost to the ages. The world had changed tremendously since his birth. Or, what he could remember of it. He remembered something from around 900 years ago. Something important. And the time was coming that he’d have to remember or else something bad would happen. But he was trying to give up the whole saving the world thing. The memories start to fade over the years anyways. If he really wanted to, he had a way to look back. But experience had taught him that looking to the past would only cause him to fall into a deep depression. 

So, Evans spent his days relaxing in his little cottage on his secluded island, only ever making trips for essentials when they ran out. On his trips, sometimes he would find an island he liked and stay for more than a few days. Or his saving people thing started to kick in. He tried to avoid situations like that. It was coming up on time to set sail again. Even if he had his own garden and greenhouse for food and remedies, things like booze and soap took him too much effort to make and he would much rather check-in on society, just to make sure they didn’t fuck things up like they did in the past.

Lying under the sun in his small boat with Fawkes perched on his stand having a nap, Evans was humming to himself. He enjoyed traveling like this. It wasn’t as if he could apparate into any town and not have questions asked. Plus, it was nice being able to relax as the waves rocked his boat. His magic lazily directed his boat forwards with no destination. Being immortal came with the freedom of having no need to rush. It was a beautiful day at sea, and he was going to enjoy it. 

Or so he thought. 

A loud siren and bells woke him up from his meditative state. Evans could hear someone shouting in the distance and lots of feet stomping against the wood. Looking over to where the noise was coming from, Evans was surprised to see a large ship with a whale head coming towards him. Sitting up slowly, he stopped the boat from moving and looked up at the people staring down at him. The ship had to be the size of a small island. 

After a few minutes, a few people lept off the side of the boat. Three of them entering the water and one of them partially transforming, giving him wings where his arms should be. The wings looked as if they were on fire with the blue flames from his childhood. Who was that girl that discovered them? Evans shook his head, trying to avoid that line of thought

The winged man flew up to the side of his boat and stopped, hovering in midair.

“You okay, yoi?” The man asked. “That doesn’t seem to be a very safe ship to be sailing in the New World on.”

Evans looked up wearily and nodded. 

“The name’s Marco. First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. Could you leave this territory, yoi? We’d rather not fight you if you just accidentally wandered in.” Bird-man Marco asked him, sounding a little annoyed. 

“Who’s the Whitebeard Pirates?” Evans asked, somewhat curious but also just wanting to rile up the commander. 

Marco looked at him in disbelief. “What you doing in the New World kid without knowing Whitebeard? One of the Yonko? Pirate rulers of the New World?”

Evans shook his head. Had it really been that long since he last got out?

Marco sighed. “Look kid. We’re pretty nice pirates so we’ll get you a map of the territories, so you don’t screw yourself over again, but be careful. Not all the Yonko are as nice.”

Evans nodded.

“What’s your name kid?” Marco asked after quickly signaling to the crew for something. 

“Call me Evans.”

“Evans? Like that old wives’ tale. The one about the island guardian or whatnot?”

“Yep.” Evans replied, popping the P.

“Look Evans. I’ll be back. I’m just going to grab you that map, but then you better be on your way.” Marco said with a stern glance before flying away back to the ship. 

Evans looked at the retreating figure with unconcealed curiosity. Looking over the side of the boat at the fishmen that were still underwater, he waved. 

After some glances and hand motions, one of the fishmen popped his head out of the water. “What do you want?”

“Is that Marco dude a Devil Fruit user?” Evans asked. 

The fishman nodded and replied in a gruff voice. “Marco the Phoenix.”

Evans hummed to himself glancing at Fawkes. “Is that right?”

The phoenix let out a small trill having been woken up by the commotion. 

“Well, how about that?” Evans said in disbelief. It had been a long time since he had seen a mythical beast devil fruit. He never thought he would meet the phoenix holder much less. Most had sunk into the ocean when the seas rose. Or at least, that’s what he had thought until now. 

The fishman looked at him oddly and then disappeared again into the water. 

Memories came back to him in waves. The creation of the devil’s fruit with the remaining elves. The merfolk surviving only to adapt, turning into fishmen. The final war. 

“Yoi.” Marco’s voice shook Evans out of his thoughts. Marco tossed him a scroll with the words ‘New World Territories’ scribbled on the top. “This shows all the Yonkos’ territories as of now. Be more careful where your sailing, yoi.”

Evans glanced up at the man and nodded. “Have you had a burning day yet?” He quickly tacked on to the nod as he saw the man turning to leave. 

Marco looked at him like he was crazy. “Just hurry up and get out of here kid. We have other things to do.”

Evans sighed at the lack of an answer but quickly opened the map to figure out where he had to go to leave. Pushing his magic into the ocean again to make his boat move, he looked behind him and the slowly retreating figures of the ship and its crew. Since when did Yonkos exist? He hadn’t been gone that long, had he?

Evans decided to apparate him and his boat to the ocean by one of his favorite islands in Paradise once he was out of view. Just so he could figure out how many years had passed. Maybe catch up on some news. It was obvious he was a bit out of date with his current knowledge and that would get you killed easily. Not like he could be killed. But it was a pain and a half having to regenerate your entire body from scratch.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for those who read Chapter 3! I combined it with this chapter and added a little onto the end so you might want to just scroll down and read that quickly before continuing.

Evans smiled to himself as he stepped foot on the docs of Alabasta’s capital, Alubarna. It was a dessert island with a kind king ruling the land. That is, if nothing’s changed too much since. If he remembered correctly, the current monarchy, though technically apart of the kingdoms that started the World Government, have much better heads on their shoulders than the rest of that idiotic group. Wearing space suits to make sure they don’t breathe the same air as normal people. Weirdos. 

Walking to the closest news stand, he picked up a paper and started walking towards the Marine Headquarters. Even if most of them were corrupt and useless, they did keep up to date information and there was no problem casting a small disillusionment charm to keep the idiots at bay. 

Looking down at the paper, Evans saw the date read 868 A.V., March 6. Evans choked in air when he saw the date. Had he really been disconnected from the world for 25 years. Picking up his pace a bit, he scrolled though the paper. Wanted posters lined the back page. Names he had never heard of. Nothing too new, but this was the longest he had been disconnected from the world in centuries. Usually he went out at least every 5 years. 

After sneaking into the Marine base, Evans found the head office and started shuffling through files in the desk. He had surprisingly missed quite a bit in 25 years. Gol D. Roger became the ‘Pirate King’ and was executed a few years later after being brought down by a marine named Monkey D. Garp. The Yonkos mentioned by phoenix boy were all listed with instructions not to attack unless provoked. There was also a list of Shichibukai, which seamed to be pirate agents for the World Government, meant to keep the peace. 

Turns out the Rocks Pirates which Evans remembered from his last trip out were disbanded and taken down by Garp and Roger years ago. Three of the members ended being Yonkos. All he remembered of that group was their complete inability to get along. No wonder they ended up splitting up into their own groups. 

Then there was the noble issue. It seemed that the Marines were still sucking up to those no-good wannabe gods. If he was right, they were probably still holding the world destruction information over their heads. But Evans promised himself no more playing hero. The world didn’t need to keep making him self-destruct. 

The void century issue was still around. The marines blasted Ohara to make sure the information would never be leaked. Idiots. They ruined one of the best libraries in the world for something that could be solved with surveillance. Then they put out a bounty on the kid who escaped who probably doesn’t even know what it means, much less the language. 

Evans sighed for the nth time that day. He had been gone from society for too long. There was too much to try and catch up on. But he knew enough now to keep him out of trouble. Hopefully. It’s not like trouble just follows him around or something. Psh. As if that’s a thing. 

Deciding that he’d done enough snooping for one day, Evans headed back to his ship. Trying to avoid trouble at all costs. He obviously wasn’t going to play hero anymore. So even if he should come across trouble, it’s not like he’d involve himself in it. 

Whistling a tune to himself and letting his mind drift, Evans kept walking straight to the dock. 

Almost there. 

So close. 

And he trips over a small crying child with more than an acceptable amount of scrapes for it to be rough housing. 

Evans squeezed his eyes shut, cursing his non-existent luck, before opening his eyes and kneeling to check on the kid. 

“You okay there?” Evans asked the child. 

The kid sniffled a few times, rubbing the tears from his eyes, trying to put on a brave face. “I’m fine. Mommy told me not to bother the marines. It was my fault for not listening.”

“Mhmm. And what did the marines do? I thought they were meant to be helpful?” Evans asked in a curious voice. 

“Well, the marines were being mean to Ms. Ruby. She owns the tavern by the docks. And Ms. Ruby is always really nice to me. She always gives me juice when I come to pick up Mommy’s orders. But the marines said mean things to her and called her a bad word and I wanted them to stop so I yelled at them. You’re not meant to yell at them. Else this happens.” 

Evans’ green eyes glowed with anger. “Well kid. I think you should go home to your Mom and tell her how brave you were today, and I’ll go check up on Ms. Ruby to make sure she’s alright. How’s that sound?”

The kid nodded, wiping the rest of his tears from his face and smiled before running off yelling, “Thank you Mister!”

Evans tried to stop right there and keep heading back to his boat. He really did. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. If there was one thing that he hated, it was liars. And he wasn’t going to turn into one just because he didn’t want to go check in on some barmaid. 

Sighing once again, Evans headed towards the only tavern by the docks, ‘The Ruby Mine.’ Wonder where it got the name. 

Pushing the swinging door open, Evans walked in to find a bunch of marines with their hands all over the young barmaid. 

“OI!” Evans yelled, getting the marines attention. “Whatcha think you’re doing?”

One of the marines laughed. “We’re just having a little fun, pretty boy. Now scram. Else someone might get hurt.”

Evans sighed at the stereotypical evil villain rant. This was not what he had in mind when he set out to get supplies. How does everything always go so wrong. 

Pulling out his sword from his pocket, Evans motioned towards the marines. “Yeah, I think someone is about to get hurt. But it sure isn’t me.”

The marine who spoke earlier growled, then yelled at the other men, “Attack him.”

The other marines ran towards Evans, pulling their swords free, but before they could do anything, they were on the floor, unmoving. 

“Pressure points.” Evans muttered to himself. “Sure are useful when you don’t want any trouble later.”

The last marine trembled. “Who are you?”

Pausing to look at the marine who had dropped his sword in surrender, he said, “They call me Evans.” 

Then he ran up to the last marine and quickly hit his pressure point, knocking him out. Quickly reaching down towards the marine, he shuffled through the man’s pockets til he found what he was looking for. 

Pulling out the mini Den Den Mushi, Harry quickly dialed what he knew to be the number for Marine HQ. 

“Please state the reason for calling.” The voice on the other end responded through the snail. 

“Code HJPDH. You need to inspect the marines stationed at Alubarna, Alabasta, in Paradise. One of the units was about to rape a young woman. If this isn’t solved within the week, I will make sure every marine on this island dies. This is your first and final warning.” Evans hung up. 

Turning to the young barmaid Evans said, “Ms., please lay low until the week is up. I would hate for all this energy to go to waste.”

The young lady nodded quickly.

Evans turned around looking at the bodies littering the floor. He had to get them back to the Marine HQ on this island somehow. Maybe a wheelbarrow. With a clothe over the top?

“Um, Sir.” The barmaid spoke up. “Thank you for saving me and all, but if I may ask, how did you know what was happening.”

Evans turned to face the lady. “Ms. Ruby, was it? I happened to come across a small child who wanted to make sure you got help. He’s fine and at his mothers if you know where that is. I’ll be out of your hair in a second, I just need to cart these bodies back where they belong.”

Ruby nodded and thanked the strange lad. Deciding to clean up the mess the marines left, leaving Evans to deal with the marines themselves. 

After bidding the lady fairwell, Evans took the bodies and left them in the cart he grabbed in front of the Marine HQ in Alubarna. Evans sighed one last time before heading back to his boat. Surely this was all his luck had instore for this outing. If he headed back to the New World quickly enough and gathered enough supplies, he could avoid coming back out again for at least another decade. That would be nice.

Evans finally arrived back in the New World without any further interruptions and decided to go straight to one of his usual stops. If it had been 25 years since he last left his island, that meant he had 25 years of luck waiting for him. Luck he didn’t want. He didn’t want to be a hero world. So stop putting him into positions where he has no choice!

Well, not no choice. But unless the world wants him to be a perpetual dick. 

Not the point. Evans was on his way to another old haunt of his. It was technically in Whitebeards territory according to the map, but not much wasn’t in someone’s territory. He wondered why the pirates were so uptight that he was in their territory. Maybe it was cause he was close to an island that didn’t show on their map. Maybe it’s their home base or something.

Evans hummed to himself as he thought about the pirates he ran into. That guy who ate the phoenix devil fruit. When he made the devil fruits with the elves, it was because magic was dying. The world was ending as they knew it and magic was returning to her origins. Into the earth to be redistributed to a better life. In order to fully cleanse the world of magical beings, mother magic had to take those powers and find a new place for them. So, she created the garden of Eden. Like in those church stories they used to shove down his throat while accusing him of being a devil’s child. The garden of Eden with the Devil’s tree in the middle. 

When most of the world had sunk, leaving the garden the only thing untouched, he decided to move the fruits it bore. Spreading them throughout the ocean so no one would find them. He hadn’t thought that as the land began to rise again the fruits would be rediscovered. But when he had realized, he decided not to worry. Most of the mythical fruit where so far below the ocean no one should have been able to find it. Or so he thought. 

The poor guy who ate the phoenix fruit would likely never die. Maybe he would eventually join Evans in his small haven. Evans would finally have a friend who wouldn’t die. But until the day where he lost his loved ones. Until he was bitter with the world and no longer saw through the rose-tinted glasses called life, Evans would leave him be. Let him have his happiness while he still could. 

It’s obvious the phoenix was still a baby with no knowledge of his kind. Not that there was much knowledge out there for him to find. He couldn’t be older than 40. Even with the decreased aging from the fruit, his burning day wouldn’t come until he was at least 100. 

Evans looked at his sole companion throughout the years for guidance. “Should I try to help him, Fawkes? Is he in need of it? Or should I let the guy be for now and try to find him again in 100 years.”

Fawkes trilled sadly for his companion. Though mother magic had drained almost everyone of their magic, she had left his human familiar with his. Making him the keeper. 

Evans sighed. “You’re right as usual. I should leave him with his family. I’ll try to keep a better eye out for now though. Who knows what other fruit has been found unintentionally. I’ve been negligent.”

Evans looked forward at the island showing up in the distance. It was a relatively quiet island, but it always had a busy trading market and was well stocked with anything he could want or need. Plus, with how long it had been since he was last in society, there were bound to be some new inventions lying around. He found it curious how things could be made so differently but come out with the same base usage as they had millennia ago. 

Once his boat was docked, Evans made his way into town. He decided to stop by a little Inn on his way to keep up appearances. It wouldn’t do him any good if someone asked where he slept on his tiny boat. 

Walking into ‘The Cozy Inn,’ Evans smiled. Nothing had changed since he was last here 30 or so years ago. The old cabin feel was ever-present, and the current owners were doing a great job at making sure everything was being kept in top condition. 

Behind the desk an old lady sat on a tall wooden chair. 

“How can I help you, sir?” she asked without looking up. 

Evans smiled. “Could I get a room for the week, please Miss.”

The old lady quickly looked up and blinked twice. “I would recognize that voice anywhere. Why are you still so young though Evans?”

Evans chuckled grimly. “Tis a curse I live with. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it though Noma.”

“Ever the charmer, aren’t you Evans.” She smiled. “Though how dare you show a lady up. Turning up looking so young.”

“You know me Noma. Without my young features, I would just be a cynical, cranky old man.”

“That you would.” Noma replied with a hint of melancholy. “You said a room for a week? Any chance I could get you to stay for longer? I’ve missed our chats.”

Evans sighed, a melancholy smile on his face. “Of all people, you should know my policy and my reasons for it.”

Noma chuckled. “That I should. But however much you curse your luck, it saved our town. Even if you’re convinced, they never would have happened if you hadn’t been there, I still believe that I was saved because you were there.”

“Well, if only because it’s you, I’ll stay an extra week. But if anything looks like it’s about to head South, that’s my cue to leave.”

“Fair enough. That will be 20,000 berries.”

Evans smiled pulling out the money from his expanded pouch, muttering about greedy old women. “So. Tell me. What’s it like living under a pirate’s protection? Even more so, one of the pirates which were apart of the crew who attacked here last time I visited.”

Noma looked up in surprise from counting the change. “You mean he was apart of that crew? They act nothing like those scoundrels.”

Evans hummed. “Edward Newgate. Part of the Rocks Pirates back in the day. I can’t say that I remember much about him, but given how divided that crew was, it doesn’t surprise me.”

“I would have never guessed.” Noma paused. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him up close. He tends to stay on the ship whenever they come around. But his crew is quite nice, even if they’re a bit rambunctious. They consider themselves one big family and are happy to include any residents of their islands under that umbrella as well.”

Evans smiled. It sounded nice to be able to have a huge family. It was one of the things he had always wanted in life but never seemed to achieve. It’s a given that anything associated with death can’t make life. 

“That sounds like a nice pipe dream. Maybe you’d be able to answer a few of my other questions. It’s been a while since I was last out to sea. What’s the deal with these Yonkos and their territory?”

Noma laughed. “I’m not sure if you remember that young rascal of a pirate, Gol D. Roger?”

“The name rings a bell, and I’ve read about his title and death but not much else comes to mind.”

“Well, he was the one, along with Garp the Marine Hero, to take down the Rocks pirates all those years ago. Not long after you last left.”

Evans nodded. Memories of the incident coming back to him. 

“Anyways, during his execution, he announced he had hidden the world’s greatest treasure on Raftle and the one who found it would be the next pirate king. It caused a bunch of thugs to decide pirate life was the way to go. So, a bunch of the old pirates, like Whitebeard, Big Mom, and Kaido, decided to make a pact to protect Raftle and its secrets while taking down the plunderers. In order to make sure our island stays safe from big attacks, we agreed to join Whitebeards territory.”

Evans hummed. “That still doesn’t explain why they didn’t want me sailing in their territory.”

Noma frowned. “That’s unusual. Was it just you and your little boat? I can’t imagine that you would be threatening enough to cause them any worry. Where were you sailing?”

Once he had pulled out his map, Evans pointed to a small part of the ocean with not many islands around it.

A small, ahhh, came out of Noma’s mouth. “You were on a direct path towards their home base.” Pointing to a blank spot in the ocean on the map where Harry knew a small island existed, Nona continued. “This is where the wives and children of crew members live. I believe some retired crew members reside there as well. They get quite protective over that area of the ocean. I’d try and stay as far away from it as possible. You’ll be fine here. Or most other places in the New World.”

It was just his luck acting up again, Evans thought to himself. 

“Now tell me what you’ve been up to for all these years while I show you to your room.” Noma said, shuffling the money into a lockbox and motioning for him to follow. 

Evans followed Noma, telling her about his quiet cottage on his personal island. How he found a new species of Droseraceae which ate humans that he kept in one of his more volatile greenhouses. Then he mentioned his plans to go to the market the next morning to see what was available, given that he had been away for so long. 

Once at his room, for the time being, Noma asked Evans to join her and her family in the morning for breakfast. Evans quickly agreed, saying that he’d love to meet her family and looked forwards to seeing her in the morning. Then Evans put down the stuff that he had brought with him and washed up, deciding the best option he had was to sleep.

Evans had just finished breakfast with Noma and her daughter and grandkids (boy did that make him feel old) and was heading down to the towns market. It was a beautiful sunny day. The birds were chirping and the sea breeze coming from the shore kept it feeling nice and cool. A few small children were running around chasing each other through the street and everything seemed right in the world. 

Something was about to happen. Nothing could stay this nice for Evans while there were people around. But nothing seemed to come up and everything was going on as per usual. It made Evans tense.

While browsing the store lining the street, Evans found a few things he hadn’t seen before in this era of civilization, but nothing that he didn’t have a substitute for. After grabbing an excessive amount of soap and sake, Evans headed back to his small boat floating by the docks to store his goods. There was a hidden compartment which lined the bottom of the boat that allowed him to store large amounts of items under statis. 

Climbing up from the hold, Evans heard some yells and cheers. Looking around to see if he could spot the cause, he saw the large ship he had bumped into the other day not far from shore. 

After casting a quick notice-me-not charm on his boat, he turned to walk back to the Inn, praying that the pirates wouldn’t notice his little boat and come looking for him. He didn’t ask for trouble. He swore he didn’t. He knew that the day seemed to good to be true. But why did it have to end like this. What had he done in life to deserve this punishment?


	3. Chapter 3

Evans peaked out the window for the millionth time over the past 3 days. The notice-me-not charm on his boat would’ve worn off by now. It was only a matter of time before they came looking for him. 

A knock on the door startled him. Quickly making his way to the door, he asked who it was. 

“It’s just me Evans. You haven’t been down for food in days. Stop being a pussy and come out.” Noma said, clearly irritated at his irrational fears. 

Evans opened the door slightly. “But there gonna come after me.” He whined. 

Noma grabbed his arm and pulled him outside, forcing him to follow her downstairs, before pushing him into a chair in the kitchen and shoving a plate of food in front of him. 

Evans stared at the food for a moment, before slowly reaching out and grabbing the piece of bread from the plate to eat.

“Shank yu.” Evans muttered with food stuffed in his mouth. 

Noma nodded, looking rather proud of herself. 

“If you wanted to know, the pirates have come by looking for you.” Noma sighed when she saw his panicked look. “They didn’t seem to want anything bad. Just to ask you why you came here after they gave you that map.”

Evans grimaced. “What else was I meant to do. Barely anything with good trade routes is in free territory.”

“I think they’re more confused as to why a lone sailor with no knowledge of current trade routes is traveling around aimlessly. Did you say anything to them which would make you a threat?” 

Evans thought about it. He didn’t think that he’d said anything too out there. Except for maybe that burning day comment. Maybe phoenix boy figured it out and had some questions. That he could do. That’s not too much trouble.

It wasn’t until Evans reached for more food and found that there was none left, that he decided to speak again. 

“Noma. Could you be the biggest darling out there and give those pirates a call? Let them know I’ll chat with them. They can ask their questions, but if they do something I don’t like, I’ll disappear for another 30 years.”

Noma looked to Evans and sighed. The man sure seemed to like his trouble. She quickly picked up the Den Den Mushi and called the Whitebeard pirates to let them know. 

Not long after his impromptu lunch with Noma, phoenix boy and a few of his friends arrived at the Inn asking if he would mind taking the conversation to their ship so their captain could be involved. 

Evans agreed, as long as he could take Fawkes with him. 

Marco eyed the bird wearily but agreed to the boy’s condition. 

Evans kept his eyes on all possible exits as he entered the ship. He decided to bring Fawkes along with him, just in case things got messy and he needed an immediate escape, but he wanted to avoid using Fawkes unless absolutely necessary. There was a reason the only knowledge the Marines had about him was his code and the deal he made with their predecessors.

Marco led him to the top deck where Edward Newgate sat in all his glory. After seeing him in real life, Evans began to recognize his face. Back in the day, he didn’t have the white banana looking mustache he now wore. But his general features remained the same. He had spared with the man a few times after one of his run ins with the Rocks Pirates. Just as a fun way to release some steam. By the look on Newgate’s face now, there was no way the man didn’t recognize him as well. 

“It’s a surprise to see you again Evans. When they told me your name, I almost didn’t believe it. Especially since no one has heard from you in almost 2 decades. Gura gura gura.” Whitebeard chuckled. 

Evans rolled his eyes. “You look worse for wear, Newgate. Got in a bit over your head at some point?” 

Growls resounded from a few of the men standing close by. 

“Back down, children. This is my old sparring partner, Evans. I doubt he’ll be around for more than a month, so put up with his bad temper and be nice while he’s here.”

“Excuse me?” Evans interjected. “I do not have a bad temper. And what do you mean while I’m here. I’m not staying with you while I’m out. If anything, I’ll just leave and pop to another island so I can get away from you.”

Newgate chuckled. “I doubt you would leave so soon. If I remember correctly this is the only island you can ger Vicari’s Whiskey from, and if you want enough to last you another 5 years of isolation, you’ll stick around.”

Evans pouted at the truth in that statement. The time it took to carefully go around the island and pick up as many bottles as he could find was surprisingly lengthy, and he didn’t want to leave without at least 50 bottles. 

“Gura Gura Gura. Well, looks like you’ll be sticking around for at least another week. I’ll introduce you to my sons!” Whitebeard continued. 

“Wow, you really are an old man now, Newgate. Just how many women did you knock up? Must have been a lot from back in the day. And you never did come across as a lady’s man.”

Newgate went in to flick the man for that comment, but instead ended up with Evans on his head. Going to smack the man, Newgate slapped his own head. 

Boisterous laugher came from the dark-haired visitor as he rolled on the floor in front of the ship’s captain. 

Scowling at the youthful man in front of him, Newgate said, “I forgot you could do that. Anyways, my children, as I mentioned before, this is Evans, don’t ask how he can do the things he does, you’ll never get an answer. Evans, these are my 8 current commanders. 1st Division Commander Marco, 2nd Division Commander Blenheim, 3rd Division Commander Jozu, 4th Division Commander Atmos, 5th Division Commander Vista, 6th Division Commander Kingdew, 7th Division Commander Rakuyo, and 8th Division Commander Curiel.” *

Evans bowed shallowly, greeting the new faces. “Nice to meet you. You can call me Evans. Ask questions if you must, but I make no promises to answer them.”

Whitebeard chuckled as his sons stood and stared at Evans in confusion. A few looked towards Whitebeard for permission to leave. After receiving a slight nod, they headed off, probably going to finish chores or paperwork. Just thinking about the amount of paperwork that would need to be done on a ship of this size made Evans’ head spin. 

Evans turned to face Newgate, “So, what was it you actual called me out here to talk about. If it was just to see if I was who I said, I’m disappointed. I have better things to do with my life.”

Or does he. It’s not like he’s done much in the past couple decades. Much less done anything close to productive. It was just him and his island. Never changing as the world continues on around him. 

Newgate interrupted his pondering, “I’d like to think that you’d appreciate seeing your old sparing partner. I guess I was wrong.” Newgate paused before continuing. “But as always, my old friend, you are right. I wanted to know what you meant by your comment towards my son, Marco.”

Evans hummed to himself, thinking back to the comments he made when he first met the phoenix. Newgate was probably asking about the burning day. “I believe I said something along the lines of ‘Call me Evans,’ but I don’t think that’s what you’re asking about.” Turning to the spikey-haired man he then asked, “How old are you really?”

Marco stiffened, then looked to Whitebeard for confirmation, before answering, “72.”

Evans’ eyebrows raised in surprise. “I knew you were older than you looked but to be that old. That’s going to change some of my plans.” He muttered before addressing the man directly. “I’ll come find you in about 10 years and explain properly. By then you should be close.”

The phoenix boy developed a tick in his eyebrow. “What do you mean, you’ll find me?”

“So, he’s older than you? That’s a shocker.” Evans ignore the irate commander in favor of addressing his captain. 

“Gura, gura, gura. He doesn’t have to be younger to be my son. I’m happy to be the parent to anyone who’s in need of one. That includes you.” Whitebeard gave the wayward traveler a look. 

Evans gave the captain a melancholy smile. “My time for family has long come and gone. Maybe if it were another place, another time. But now. It’s far too late for that.”

Turning his back to the pirates, Evan’s started to make his way off the ship. 

“If you need me, I’ll be at that same Inn for at least another week. You’ve put me behind schedule. Or. Just give a holler.”

Evans waved, jumping over the side of the ship to land softly on the dock below, Fawkes trilling gently flying high above him as he made his way back to the Inn. He needed to map out his next shops for Whiskey. Maybe find a few new brands to try along the way. 

Newgate watched as the small wanderer walked away from his ship. He had always though Evans to be a lost soul. Now more so than ever. If what he guessed was correct, there was no wonder the man acted the way he did. His eyes spoke of tales far beyond what his body showed. He could only hope that his son would be able to help him. It seemed that the phoenix zoan user wouldn’t be leaving this world any time soon. Maybe he could help Evans in a way no one else has been able to before. 

Smiling to himself, Evans counted his bottles of whiskey and sake, making sure he had enough in stock for at least five years. It had only been 5 days since he went on the Whitebeard Pirates’ ship. Even if they still hadn’t left the island, none of them had come to bother him, which suited him just fine. He was planning to leave soon to another island. 

When he returned from the ship, he explained to Noma what had happened. She knew that he had a few sparing partners. One that was in the Rocks Pirates. Even with his dislike for the pirate group itself. She was pleasantly surprised that it happened to be the captain of the pirates that protect her island. 

She understood when he told her that he had to leave after a week. She had always known his stay wouldn’t be long. It never was. But a lady could always hope. 

Evans continued to hum to himself, packing away the last of his liquor in one of his expandable bags. There were two more islands he wanted to make quick stops at before leaving to return to his island. And one person he wanted to see. But he wouldn’t need a cover for that. He just needed to make sure the man was alone. Surveillance still hadn’t caught up to what it was in the past.

A knock at the door startled Evans. After making sure everything was packed away and on his person, Evans opened the door to find the phoenix devil fruit user. The man stood awkwardly at the door, grasping for words for a moment, before Evans motioned for him to come in. He was hoping he wouldn’t have to deal with these pirates anymore, but he guessed he could suck it up if it only happened once.

Marco stepped inside the room and stood there awkwardly until Evans motioned to the seat by the desk as he took a seat on the bed. 

“So, you came to see me?” Evans spoke up. 

Marco gave a sharp nod. Taking a deep breath, he began to speak. “You’ve known Pops since before he started his own crew. More than 20 years ago. Right?”

Evans nodded, already knowing where this conversation was headed. 

“But. You don’t look to be much older than 17. How?” Marco said in disbelief. 

Harry chuckled gravely. “To this day, I’m still not sure I know the truth as to how. Much less why. But yes. I’m much older than I appear. Then again, so are you. Is it really so strange to see in the New World?”

Marco shook his head. “How old actually are you? And what did you mean by burning day. Does it have something to do with my devil fruit? You only mentioned it after you found out my moniker.”

“I’m not sure how old I am anymore. That should tell you more about me than most get in their lifetime. And as for burning days. You’re a sea phoenix if I’ve guessed correctly. Given the curse on the fruit, the only gift you’ve retained from the fruit would be the transformation and the healing powers. Interesting that they look like blue-bell flames.” Evans then shut his mouth realizing he had just said more than he had planned. “Well, either way, you’ll soon find what a burning day means. In about 10 years. It’s not too far away.” Then he continued speaking, more to himself than to the man in the room. “I guess it may not actually be a burning day for you. Maybe a melting day? Evaporating day? I’ve never met a sea phoenix.”

It was more information than Marco was able to digest at once so he just stayed silent while he tried to wrap his mind around it.

“Well, you’ve gotten more information out of me than anyone had in a long time. Time for you to leave.” Evans said getting up from the bed and pushing the pirate out of his temporary room. “Have a nice 10 years.”

Evans slammed the door shut and started cursing himself. Why did he decided to get involved in this kids’ future again? Fawkes chirped from his stand by the window, then flew over to perch on his friend’s shoulder, nuzzling into his cheek. 

Sighing, Evans pet Fawkes head fondly. “I know I’m doing the right thing. But I’ve spent all this time avoiding giving anyone unnecessary information for so long. It feels strange to have accidentally said so much. What’s happening to me? Maybe it’s just my luck kicking in again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I know that some of the commanders are not the right number canonically. I based the Commanders number on how long they've been with the crew. So someone like Thatch, who didn't join the crew until later, got bumped for someone from the original crew according to the wiki. Sorry for the confusion! I just thought it would make more sense given that in this story it's currently meant to be about 12 years before Luffy sets sail.


	4. Chapter 4

Garp was twiddling his thumbs in this his private office on his ship, avoiding paperwork, when a loud pop resounded throughout the room. Groaning Garp slid down to hide under his desk. 

“I don’t wanna talk.” Garp whined. “It’s been years since you last nagged me. I didn’t do nothing. Go away!” 

Footsteps clicked on the wood floors, coming closer and closer to the desk, before a pale arm reached out and pulled Garp up from underneath the desk.

“Nice to see you again, old friend.” Garp stared up at Evans who had a leering smile on his face. 

Garp laughed nervously. “Hiya there Evans! Long time no see. But as you can see. I have a lot of paperwork to do so I can’t chat. Maybe some other time?”

Evans rolled his eyes. “Like you’d ever willingly do paperwork. That’s not what I came here for though. What’s this about you beating up Roger and sending him to the sharks? Last I heard you two were on good terms. Thought that little rendezvous where you guys somehow roped me into helping you take down the Rock Pirates was a bonding experience for the two of you?”

Garp started sweating. “I swear I didn’t hurt him. We were still on friendly terms. I even took his son in. Kept him secret and everything. He had a fatal illness. Figured he’d go out with a bang or something. The idiot. But I was still friendly with him.”

Shaking his head at Garp’s antics, Evans corrected him. “I don’t care about your friendship with him. What I care about is what the Marines are doing with the world at the moment and you’re going to do a better job keeping a look out for these things.”

Garp straightened up and saluted him. “Sir, yes, sir.”

Evans nodded. That was more like it. 

“I went to Alabasta to catch up on the current news and found Marines attacking civilians. Why is that?”

Garp’s eyes turned serious as a shadow fell over his face. “This is new knowledge to me. I don’t tolerate behavior like that, and I’ll make sure it’s corrected.”

A sigh left Evans mouth as he took a seat in the leather chair that sat behind Garp’s desk. “I understand that you can’t be everywhere at once, but I thought I explained to you the importance of giving the civilians a way to contact you should anything like that happen.”

Garp nodded, looking guilty. It had been some years since his last verbal lashing from Evans and it made him feel just as incapable now as it did back then. 

“Unless I personally step in and kill them all off, which would be more trouble than its worth, I know I can’t stop the Celestial Dragons and their barbaric need for slaves, but at least innocent civilians wouldn’t be attacked by Marines who are supposed to be protecting them if you did your fucking job.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do better.”

Looking up at Garp and nodding, Evans replied. “I hope you will.” Then changing the topic, motioning to the seat in front of Garp’s desk, Evans continued speaking. “So, you mentioned Roger’s son? Who’s actually raising him? I know he’s not on your ship. And given how you were raising Dragon, I have no doubt that you’ve somehow already fucked the kid up.”

Garp whined. “I raised Dragon just fine! He’s a bit of a rebel, but he’s a good person!”

“Yes, because any Marine would be proud to have brought up someone starting a revolution against the World Government.”

Letting out another whine, Garp frowned. “Anyways, Ace is being raised just fine. He’ll be a tough marine someday. He looks too much like Roger and is too close to the age gap where they were killing any kids born that could’ve been conceived before Roger was executed to live in the town, but there are some mountain bandits who owed me a favor who agreed to take him in. I’m sending my grandson Luffy to live there when he’s a bit older. Don’t want to hassle them with too many kids. When I start his full training Luffy will join Ace.”

Evans started at Garp in disbelief. The things this man could do without realizing there was anything wrong. Evans sent a small prayer to the children under his care before deciding to tackle the bigger issue. 

Pulling out the gin Garp always hid in his drawer, and summoning two glasses, Evans poured a drink before starting in on, what could only be considered as, child neglect. 

“You do realize that you gave Roger’s son, Ace was it, to mountain bandits.”

Garp, looking ever confused, nodded. 

“And you know what mountain bandits do for a living.”

Another nod. 

“Then why would you send a small child to live with people who pillage towns for a living?”

Grap tried to think of an answer. 

Evans sighed. “If the issue is he looks too much like Roger.” Evans paused. Was he really about to do this? Deciding to continue to shoot himself in the foot, Evans went on. “I’ll offer to change his hair color and wipe the freckles. It should change his looks enough that he wouldn’t be considered Roger’s kid. It’ll wear off in 10 years, but at least then the kid should be better at fending for himself than a small child would be. How long have you left him there?”

Garp scratched his head. “Well, I go back every few months to check up on them. But I think Ace is 7 now. About 3 months ago. Luffy will be 5 soon. He’s staying with Makino at the moment.”

Evans closed his eyes, trying to calm his emotions before he started ripping hair out of his skull. 

“Well, you’ve probably fucked that kid up beyond recognition already. So, I take it back. You’re just gonna have to live with that kid growing up to be anything other than a marine. I’ll try and keep an eye out for them though. Just, keep a better eye on them. I know they’d be screwed if words got out about their fathers, but still.”

Garp nodded sadly, taking a big gulp of his gin. 

Evans finished his drink and stood up. “I should get going now. Remember to keep a better eye on civilians. I’ve taught you how to make sure they’re able to get help. Just keep showing them. No one deserves to be fucked over by the people meant to be protecting them.”

Garp nodded and gave him another salute. “Thank you for your advice.”

Giving a small smile and a wave, Evans apparated out of the office back to the safety of his little boat with a loud pop. 

Evans laid back onto his boats only seat, closing his eyes. If there was one thing he hated most in the world, it was the way children could be treated. Contrary to what that old fart he looked up to growing up believed, nothing good came out of child neglect. He’d been left with his shitty relatives to make him into a moldable weapon. Even if it worked for the old goat all too well, it left him with some major mental issues no mount of therapy could fix. He’d tried. Or maybe it was his never-ending life fucking him over at this point. He couldn’t tell or be bothered to even care anymore. Then look again at the other children the goat neglected. Snake-face ended up being a sociopath raging war on the people who did him wrong, the dungeon bat ended up ratting out his childhood love only to go begging to the other side for help when he’d realized what he’d done. No one Evans had ever met in his life who’d suffered neglect and abuse as a child had ever turned out normal. Even if normal was overrated. 

It had been many decades since Evans dragged up those memories. He’d done a pretty good job at burying those as far down as they could go. 

Fawkes started singing a light song, trying to take the wizard out of the depths of his mind. It was a dark place and he’d been trapped there many times before. Maybe that was why he had taken so long. 

Evans shook his head, clearing the thoughts. It was never good to dwell on the past. The future was in front of him with no end in sight so he might as well make the present a better place while he can. 

Evans pulled out a scrying bowl from the pouch he kept attached to his neck at all times. It was filled with things from the old world he deemed important. Muttering some word in Latin, the runes on the side of the bowl began to light up. The everlasting water swirled and the image of a young boy with dark hair and freckles came into view. He was jumping from tree to tree, running towards what appeared to be a trash pit. 

Sighing to himself, Evans rubbed his temple hoping the headache called Garp would disappear. They man had so many good intentions. It was a shame that he had no idea how to care for children.

The kid in the bowl jumped down from a tree on top of a giant boar, knocking it out with what appeared to be a metal rod, before grabbing it and hauling it up over his shoulders, starting on what appeared to be a long walk back to his base. It was obvious the kid had given up on living with the bandits and decided to fend for himself in the forest. It wouldn’t surprise Evans if he ended up being a thief himself, just to get the necessities he would need to live. 

Taking a deep breath, he decided to check in on the other child in Garp’s care. Muttering the same Latin words as before, with a small change in name, the water in the bowl shifted once again, changing to reveal a small dark-haired boy with a wide grin. He seemed to be chatting away to what appeared to be a barmaid. If he hadn’t been told otherwise, Evans would’ve expected the two boys to be blood related. But he supposed that wasn’t actually the case. The barmaid shoved a large plate of food in front of the happy kid and said child devoured it in seconds. Evans did a quick double take at that sight before realizing that this was the grandchild of a man who ate all of his emergency supplies within 3 hours of being stranded on an island. 

Switching the bowls view back to the first child, Evans sighed. He felt guilty leaving this kid to fend for himself. It was no way for a kid to live. Debating everything that he could possibly do for the child, Evans decided on apparating there and scouting out a place he could leave supplies for the kid which wouldn’t seem too suspicious or obvious. 

Evans apparated to the forest where he had seen the young boy kill his dinner and proceeded to cover himself in notice-me-not and noise reduction charms before tracking the kid down to his hideout. 

Ace had obviously gotten sick and tired of living with the bandits, who could blame him, so he made his own tree-house fort for himself. Evans climbed up the tree adjacent to the fort and peaked through the window.

Inside the fort was Ace and another young blonde kid. Metal pipes laid in a corner, seeming to be their preferred choice of weaponry, and there were two blanket piles with pillows on top which seemed to be used as beds. A couple books were piled in another corner and a small lantern was being used for light in the middle of the room. The boys seemed to be chatting about going to a place they called the Grey Terminal to steal treasure. 

After listening to them chat for a while, Evans decided that more drastic measures needed to be taken. He wasn’t about to let two seven-year-olds try and completely take care of themselves. 

Evans decided that he was going to ward their small house, making sure nothing dangerous could get in, and give the fort rune protections to make the inside immune to freezing cold or boiling hot temperatures. He couldn’t do too much without making them suspicious but making sure that their sleeping place wouldn’t give them frostbite or heatstroke was small enough that they shouldn’t think anything of it other than luck. Then he went to go find this Grey Terminal the kids were talking about. Once he found it, he was shocked. It just appeared to be a trash dump surrounding a town. It was probably those stupid nobles polluting the area with their disregard for any lifeform, including their own. Itching to go into the city and teach the nobles a lesson, but knowing it wouldn’t do those kids any good if he did, Evans took to the trash heap and started planting blankets, books, knifes, clothes, shoes, and soap with small wards on them so only the kids could find it. He just had to hope the kids would find it on their own accord and thank their lucky stars. 

Leaving the dump called Grey Terminal, Evans decided to scout out where the younger kid in Garp’s care was. It didn’t take him long to find the kid in a small village on the other side of the island. The moon was high above his head when he finally arrived at the kid’s house. It was a small two-bedroom house just outside of the village. The only person inside at the time was Luffy. His caretaker must be at work. Thankfully the house looked suitable for a four-year-old and the kid looked well taken care of. 

Evans shoulders relaxed as he walked far enough out of the village that no one would here him apparate. At least Garp had done something right with one of the kids. That man had no common sense whatsoever. Especially not when it came to raising children. Though, its not that surprising given the way he was raised. 

A long sigh broke the silence of waves gently swaying his boat as Evans returned to his ship. Leaning back into the lone seat on-board, Evans thought about what he had just done. It was obvious that Garp was going to stick his biological grandson with the other two in a couple years. He worried about the young kid when that happened. He’d met kids like Ace before, hell, he himself could’ve turned out like Ace if given the chance. The point was Ace would never let another person into his life without a full-blown war. It was shocking to see that he even had a friend in the first place. Instead Luffy would be thrown into the forest with next to no training or knowledge of what’s to come and be alone. 

Mentally hitting himself in the head, Evans made a decision. He would make sure to keep an eye on those kids every three months, and the moment Garp moved Luffy, he would check in on them again. Maybe even in person. Probably not. That was getting too involved. Too heroic. He wasn’t a hero. 

Fawkes came to rest on the top of Evans’ head. Giving a soft trill, Evans hummed. 

“I saw you come visit me while I was checking in on those kids today, Fawkes. Don’t even try to pull that on me.” 

Fawkes huffed. 

“Mhm. Right. You just stayed on this boat all-day.”

Fawkes nodded. 

Ignoring the bird’s insistence, Evans asked, “so, what did you think of the kids?” 

Fawkes gave a long happy trill. 

“So you think the little one will be something special?”

Fawkes gave a light chirp in confirmation. 

“We’ll see in a few years then when I check in on them again.”

Chirping happily, Fawkes felt this was a good change for his friend. His companion needed more human contact in his life. He had become so far removed in the last few years it worried him. But seeing all these people who had just come into his friend’s life? He felt hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, my updates are the most inconsistent thing to exist and I don't have a beta cause my patience is limited and I don't care for waiting to post what I've written. Oops. Sorry, not sorry!


	5. Chapter 5

Evans had finally returned to his island and he had decided one thing. After debating on it for the whole trip, he decided to call back all dangerous devil fruit. Mainly the mythical zoan fruit, the light and dark logia fruit, and a few specific paramecia fruit. In particular, the ones based the extreme ends of magic. When the fruit first began to grow, it was mainly based on extreme magic. Things like time-turners and necromancy. They were never meant to be used. When civilization started again, Evans never thought they would dive into the depths of the ocean for the fruit. He assumed they’d mainly stay undiscovered for centuries. Then again. It must have been millennia since the world sunk.

The devil’s fruit curse he placed on them should have warned off any sane person in this world anyways. The majority of the world was covered in ocean, so why would someone want to forever loose their ability to withstand sea water when you’re surrounded by it. But then again. Never underestimate the stupidity of the human race as a whole. 

Evans had cleared a space in the middle of his forest for the ritual. He had purposefully made it so that he was the only one who could summon them for good reasons. Even though he was supposed to be the last magical being, minus his familiar who didn’t really count since they were tied together, it didn’t mean that someone with the summoning devil fruit wouldn’t be able to get it unless he put additional protection on it. It wasn’t worth the risk. 

Of course, once he got them back, then he had to decide which ones to return. Magic was a tricky being. The only limit on those fruit was how well you could use your imagination to adapt the powers you were given to your will. Say, someone got the fruit that allowed them to use straw. Given that straw is frequently used in voodoo, you could likely control the minds of everyone around you. Well, anyone who’s will was weaker than the users. But given that the devil fruit couldn’t just disappear forever, since that would make the world boring, he would just have to take the risk. 

Evans began chanting. 

It was unfortunate that the ritual had certain downsides though. It would only call back the fruit which hadn’t been eaten, and anyone who had already eaten a fruit would keep their abilities until death. And the biggest downside. He couldn’t call back singular fruit, and even if he could, it wasn’t likely he would get all the important ones, so he had to retrieve all of the fruit, look at the list he had made millennia ago, and then figure out which of the important ones where missing to keep track of their users and where they would end up. 

It was something that made him want to tear his hair out and just give up. Why didn’t he. He didn’t owe it to the world. He wasn’t some hero in the game of life. He was just plain old Har-. No. He gave up that name a long time ago. It was Evans now. Just Evans. 

That wasn’t the point. Evans looked at the fruit that had appeared in front of him wanting to cry. There were over 10,000 fruit in front of him. He had forgotten how many there were. In the grand scheme of things, 10k wasn’t that many, but when he had to scan them one by one and then figure out which ones were missing. The deciding which ones to return. Running his hand through his hair, he sighed. Best to start now. At least it’ll give him something vaguely new to do. 

Just after Evans had summoned all the devil fruit, the Marin Head Quarters were in a frenzy trying to figure out what had happened. Every devil fruit they had in storage had disappeared along with the ones owned by the Celestial Dragons. The elite class were out for blood and wanted someone to blame. The marines on the other hand were trying to figure out what had happened to the fruit and how to cover up one of the biggest thieveries the World Government had ever experienced. After promising the World Nobles that they would receive the amount of devil fruits which they lost plus one extra for compensation, the Marines went on to try and figure out how to find the missing fruit. 

Sengoku was shuffling through paperwork, trying to figure out what to do. He’d only been Fleet Admiral for a year, and he was already getting thrown in the deep end. Throwing his head back, he groaned. 

Loud stomps and obnoxious laughter came echoing down the hall. The door to Sengoku’s office slammed open.

Munch. Munch. Munch. 

“Oi, Garp. You’re leaving crumbs in my office. You shouldn’t even be here. Leave.” Sengoku complained. 

“Wahahahahahhah.” Garp laughed while still munching on his rice crackers. “You sound more and more like an old fart every day. Wahahahaha.”

Sengoku grunted. It wasn’t his fault this job took its toll. How Kong did it before him, he would never know.

“What do you want, Garp? You should know by now that the World Government has been robbed of their devil fruits. Everyone’s in a panic and I don’t need to deal with you as well.” 

“Wahahhahahah. You still haven’t figured it out?” Garp laughed, crumbs lining his mouth. 

Sengoku glared at Garp. “What?”

Garp stopped eating, turning serious for a moment. “I have it on good knowledge Code HJPDH was called recently. No one else is elusive and evasive enough to pull this off. Maybe it’s punishment for recent failures. Or maybe he’s just bored. Either way, you’ll never find him. Wahahhah.”

Staring at the usually airheaded man, Sengoku sighed. He had thought of the possibility, but if what Garp had mentioned was true, there would be no Justice. He rarely interfered with Marine or World Government operations. It was also said, He would never be found if you looked for Him. The only was you’d ever meet Him was if He decided to come to you. It was the only reason the World Government hadn’t put out any public notices or bounties on the man. They tried once many years ago. Least to say, it didn’t end well. 

Leaning back in his chair, Sengoku spoke, “Even if that is true, the Celestial Dragons are out for blood. They won’t rest until we find someone to put the blame on and putting it on an innocent person wouldn’t be Justice. What do you think we should do?”

Garp laughed, back to happily munching on his crackers. “You’re the one who accepted the promotion. Wahahahhah. That why I always refused. Any higher and I have to do too much work. Wahahahah.”

Sengoku started to bang his head against his desk. This is what he got for befriending this idiot. 

Two Years. It had taken him two years to sort through those stupid fruit. He kept about 1,000 of the 11,479 that had returned when he called, and he had found only a week later that as long as he kept the summoning circle intact, it would continue to summon the fruit once a user died. Fortunately, it didn’t keep summoning the fruit already summoned back to the circle, or that would’ve been a nightmare, and did he know a thing about nightmares. 

So he continued to spread out the fruit in random places throughout the world, making it slightly more accessible to people who weren’t marines and those abhorrent Celestial Dragons as it seemed they had found out him habit of flinging the fruit into the depth of the ocean. But once they were gone, it was out of his hands. Fate will do as she wishes and as long as it didn’t include disturbing his island, he was fine with that. 

In the two years it took him to finish sorting the fruit, the youngest of the kids he was keeping an eye on had gone and decided he wanted to join a pirate crew after meeting a keen young pirate named Shanks. He reminded him a little of a young boy who always tried to spy on him and Roger when he popped by for a drink every few years. The two older kids had found bits and pieces of his gifts in the trash heap, always marveling at how something so nice could have been thrown away. But all-in-all, nothing too amazing had happened. But given the fact that the young one seemed to have been infected with Evans unique brand of luck, something was bound to happen soon. He could feel it. 

Evans was watching the younger boy in his scrying bowl. He had taken to watching out for the kids when he was bored. They were relatively amusing in their adventures. 

It turns out the small fort the older kid had built wasn’t his permanent home. He was more likely to be found at the mountain bandits’ den during the night, but at least the other child had a safer place to rest.

The little one seemed to have no self-awareness whatsoever and had made friends with a pirate over the last year. The pirates name was Shanks, and he seemed to always be drunk. Not the best influence for a young kid, but what could he say. There weren’t many good influences for children in the world as it is now. He was probably the best option for a mentor the kid had. 

Then there was Garp. As per usual, the man was highly unfocused on anything that wasn’t fighting and visited the boys even less than he had mentioned. Then again, it wasn’t entirely the man’s fault. Sengoku had been stationing him primarily on the first half of the Grand Line to keep out as many new age pirates as he could. Evans had really hoped the man would shape up after their little chat. Obviously, he was wrong. 

Returning his attention to the bowl in front of him, Evans sighed. He was right. How he hated being right. The little kid just couldn’t keep himself out of trouble. He wasn’t sure entirely what had just happened, but it seemed like some mountain bandits were taking him as hostage and planning to kill him in front of the village. 

Internally banging his head again a brick wall, Evans cried. Why did he do this to himself. 

After grabbing his guns, Evans apparated himself to the outside of town, running towards the place he had seen the bandits dragging the kid.

Turning his favored gun in his hand, Evans carried on. He didn’t particularly like getting tangled in situations where he’d have to use it, but it was too public for him to be able to use his magic. A few centuries ago, he had decided that he couldn’t carry on with just knowing how to fight with a sword. He needed a better way to fight from a distance with precision. There were times that magic just wouldn’t do it. It was too noticeable. And he was bored. He found that a gun felt similar enough to firing spells out of his want that he took to it with ease. But it still didn’t feel as good as his wand. 

“Yo.” Evans interrupted the bandits who were fighting about what to do with the screaming kid they had pinned down in the town square. 

The bandits turned to face him and growled.

“That’s not very nice of you to hurt a defenseless little kid.” Evans continued. 

The kid’s screams died down. 

“The kid had it coming. Punching me in the face.” The leader shouted. 

Evans sighed. That wasn’t a reason to hurt a kid. But he refrained from saying anything as he felt a strong presence coming from behind him. Turning to look at the pirates, he nodded. 

“Ah, thanks for standing up to these guys for Luffy!” Shanks said in a friendly tone as he approached the scene. “But we’ll handle it from here.”

Nodding once again, Evans stepped back, hand still on his weapon. Even if he wasn’t needed at the moment, he wouldn’t lower his guard. His luck was legendary for a reason and if he didn’t need to do anything at all, it would be a miracle.

Shanks smiled turning back to face the bandits.

“Pirate. You’re still here.” The bandit leader started. 

Ignoring the bandit, Shanks addressed Luffy. “Luffy. I thought your punch was as strong as a pistol?” 

“Shut up!” Luffy yelled from where he was squashed under the thug’s boot. 

Evans smiled. The pirate was good at diffusing the situation. But with his luck, and what seemed to be the kid’s luck as well, combined… It would be a miracle if something didn’t go south. 

“I don’t know why you’re here, but you better run before you get hurt.” The bandit continued to address Shanks. “If you come any closer, I’ll blow your brains out, coward.”

Another one of the bandits pulled a gun to Shanks’ head. “He said not to come any closer, pirate.”

Shanks’ hat fell to cover his eyes. “Bet your life on it.”

The bandits stared on in confusion. 

“With that pistol, you risk your life. This isn’t a child’s game.”

With those words one of Shanks’ crew, the big guy eating meat, came up next to the bandit aiming his gun at Shanks’ head and fired his own gun, killing the bandit. 

The townspeople and bandits all reeled in shock. 

“You killed him!” one of the bandits spoke. 

“What unfair bastards.” Bandit number two said. 

Shanks’ first man responded. “Unfair? Don’t be naive. You’re not fighting against holy men.”

Continuing the statement, Shanks said. “The ones before you are pirates.”

Evans moved so he was slightly closer to the kid. Things were about to heat up, and that meant something was going to go wrong. He could feel it. 

“Listen bandits. I can have drinks and food spilt on me, be spit at, and I’ll just laugh about it. However, if for any reason, you hurt a friend of mine… I won’t forgive you.” By the end, Shanks’ eyes were blaring with rage. 

The bandit leader laughed. “You won’t forgive us? Fucking pirates. Men kill them all!”

The bandits ran towards the pirate crew. 

In a gruff voice, the first mate spoke up again. “I’m enough to take care of them.” Then proceeded to beat the shit out of the bandits with the hilt of his gun. 

Evans cringed. It was a perfectly nice gun. Not a steel rod to hit people with. Use it properly. 

“You’re dreaming bandit.” The pirate continued. “If you wanted to fight us, you should have brought a warship.”

“Strong.” Luffy spoke in awe from underneath the bandit leader’s boot, causing Evans to turn his attention back to the kid. Now more so than ever, the bandit would do something drastic to get away. 

“Wait- wait a minute. The kid started it all.” The bandit spoke, sweating. 

Shanks smiled. “Isn’t there a reward for your head?”

The bandit panicked and threw a smoke bomb. The pirates weren’t expecting it and chatter broke out between them, but Evans had more important things to do than listen to idiots who didn’t know how to focus. 

Evans raced after the bandit, pistol in his hand, flicking off the safety. The bandit proceeded to make his way to the ocean. And grab a boat quickly paddling out a little way away from the ocean. Frowning, Evans aimed and shot, watching the guy fall off the side of the boat. It was too easy. Something was going to happen. 

It was then when he felt it. A sea king was resting below the bay and smelt blood. Evans sighed, realizing just what he was about to do, praying to whatever hellish god was out there that no one would see. Evans quickly apparated to the boat, grabbed the kid, and apparated back to the shore. After putting the kid down, he quickly apparated back to his cabin where his scrying bowl was still showing the image of Luffy, a bit woozy but overall no worse for wear than he was before. 

Shanks ran up to Luffy and grabbed him. “Luffy! You idiot. You’re okay. What happened? Where’s the bandit. I still need to show him why he shouldn’t hurt my friends.”

Luffy laughed. “Mystery man saved me with a mystery power.” Then turning a bit more somber, Luffy continued. “The stupid bandit is in the sea. Mystery man shot him and he fell overboard. Shanks? Where were you?”

The straw hat on Shanks’ head fell to cover his eyes. “I let my guard down Luffy. I failed you. If that guy wasn’t here, I don’t care to imagine what would have happened. I owe him one. And I’m in your debt. Makino told us what happened. You fought for us. So, don’t be upset. You’re a man!”

Luffy nodded putting on a smile again, deciding to change the subject. “I thought you guys were leaving?” 

Evans waved his hand over the bowl. The kid was in good hands for now. He would have to go back to the village later and make sure the kid didn’t talk about his powers. He’d probably need to check in on Red-Hair too to make sure he didn’t see anything. If he was right, and it was the cabin boy from Roger’s ship. It shouldn’t be too much of a worry if he did. But you could never be too cautious. 

Getting up from his chair, Evans walked into his kitchen to put on a kettle for some tea. That was too much excitement for him in a day. He didn’t sign up for this. Damn that idiot Garp.


	6. Chapter 6

Evans was watching Shanks, trying to stop himself from banging his head on his kitchen table. He was an idiot. He could’ve just shot the damn sea king with a spell while it was still in the water. That would’ve saved him from this shit show. But he guessed it was too late now. The captain obviously saw him. The man had been pacing up and down his cabin, muttering about disappearing men for an hour. 

Deciding that he needed to nip this in the bud before the captain started talking, Evans apparated directly into the Captain's cabin. 

Shanks looked up when he heard a loud pop. In front of him stood the disappearing guy that saved Luffy. He was dressed in a similar fashion to when he first saw him. A dark hooded cape, drawn high enough to cover his face in shadows, but let his glowing eyes seep through the darkness. Underneath he wore a crisp emerald green shirt and dark jeans, with dark leather boots. Unlike last time, he seemed to be missing his gun holster and there was no other visible weapon, which put Shanks on edge. Shanks had been right when he thought it was his old captain’s mysterious friend. He had only ever heard of the man from the other crewmates, but after hearing the stories, it was undeniable. 

“You’re Evans.” Shanks said, with complete certainty, interrupting what the man who had appeared in front of him was going to say. 

The man nodded, giving Shanks a weary look. “And how do you know that? You’re much too young for me to have run into you before.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Shanks chuckled. “Yeah, about that. My old crewmates used to tell ghost stories about you. I always thought they made you up. Dahahaha. I thought there was no way you could do the things they said. But I guess I was wrong.”

“And which crew was that?” Evans looked peeved. 

“Ah. Roger’s.”

Evans’ eye twitched as he took a deep breath. He knew he should have sworn that whole crew to secrecy. “You shouldn’t know this. But we’ll fix things, so you don’t go accidentally spilling any of my secrets.”

Shanks looked at him nervously. “What do you mean, fix things?”

Evans pulled out a contract from his pouch tied around his waist like a belt. He didn't usually like to pull these out. They were too similar to the unbreakable vows at the beginning of his life, but given the situation. He sighed. 

“Sign.”

Looking at the contract, and then back at the man who laid it in front of him, Shanks paused. 

“What?”

Sighing, Evans continued. “Once you sign this, it will make sure you can say nothing of the existence of my powers to anyone who doesn’t already know. Which means, you could be tortured within an inch of your life for this information, you could be so drunk you don’t know your own name, or you could just be a blabbermouth, and never be able to say anything of my powers. I trusted your old crew not to say anything, obviously a bad choice, I will not make the same mistake with you.”

Grabbing the pen Evans shoved in his face and signing the page as quickly as possible, Shanks gulped. He could see the man was serious and he knew enough stories to never want to be on this man’s bad side.

Evans straightened up, grabbed the now signed paper, and returned it to his satchel. 

“You should really read things before you sign them. You’re lucky I wasn’t lying about it.”

Shanks started sweating. 

Evans moved to take a seat in the chair stationed by the desk in the corner of the cabin. “So, any questions for me? I’ve found it’s much easier for people to cope when they have access to answers.”

Shanks looked shocked. He would’ve never expected to get any answers from what everyone had told him was a man who kept his guard high and his secrets close. 

Noticing the man’s dilemma, Evans continued. “You’re bound by magic to never speak my secrets. There’s no harm in giving you answers now.”

Evans' words launched Shanks into a list of questions a mile long, and it wasn’t until hours later when the captain’s first mate came calling for dinner, that the questions stopped. 

Turning to face what he now knew to be the only person in the world with real magic, Shanks spoke. “Do you want to come join us for food? We can make it a party. I heard you like Vicari’s? I have some hidden away for special occasions. I mean, you don’t have to. You probably have better things to do after I’ve wasted your whole day. I-“

A hand on his shoulder stopped Shanks’ speech. 

“It’d be fun, kid. And I can always go for some quality whiskey.”

Shanks burst out of his cabin and yelled to the crew. “We have a new friend! Let’s party!”

The crew burst into cheers, running to go grab liquor and food to bring to the deck. 

Evans' face acquired a small, almost unnoticeable smile. It’d been a while since he partied with pirates, but it was always the same. A nice break from his usual life. Turning to go sit by the captain, Evans relaxed for the first time in a long while.

Evans groaned. He forgot what it was like to be hung-over. He went to sit up when he realized…

He was in bed. 

With another person. 

And neither of them had clothes. 

And. 

Shit.

Evans wiggled out of the man’s arms. Once he was successfully out, he pulled his clothes back on, and exited to room as quietly as possible, trying to find a hangover cure in his pouch. Gulping down the rancid tasting elixir, Evans groaned. He had just slept with Shanks’ first mate. And it was good. It wasn't like he particularly cared for his bedmate's gender, and he never did stop letting himself enjoy the finer things in life like sex and alcohol. But he much prefered to remember the whole night when he did indulge in the more pleasurable aspects of life. And his memory of last night. Shoddy at best. He really needed to get back to his house to check up on the boys again. Maybe have a nice bath while he was at it. He winced. 

After scribbling a quick note to the captain, he wandered into Shanks' room and shoved the note on his desk before apparating back to his cabin. He needed some warm tea and a bath, then he could think about those kids left with Garp. Groaning he rubbed his head, feeling a headache come back even with the hangover cure. How stupid were these people to leave their children with that maniac? 

It had been two weeks since the Red Hair Pirates (boy was that a misnomer is he had ever heard one), and Evans’ was back to stalking Garp’s kids. Okay. Maybe stalking wasn’t the best way to put it. But who did he care? He was a stupidly old immortal being with no laws that applied to him. 

Looking into his scrying bowl, he saw Garp dragging Luffy up a mountain. It was obvious the man had returned from his last trip to find out his grandson’s new ambition to be the Pirate King. Evans groaned. Was it really that time already? He had told himself once the two grandkids had been thrust into the mountain bandits care, he would go and meet them, just to make sure they were okay, but did he really want to make those connections. It was always so sad to see children grow old and die. Maybe he’d only go once. Just to make sure they’re settled. And only once they’re friends. It would take Ace a while to warm up to Luffy, but that would work. Luffy could make friends with his worst enemy on a bad day. It’s completely doable. 

Settling down back into his seat, Evans continued to worry about the two small children he had definitely not taken under his wing. How absurd. He didn’t do that. 

Garp is an awful caretaker. He knew this before, but now it was so much more obvious. Evans had just finished watching little Luffy get beat up by pirate thugs for information on where the other brats’ treasure was. The kid was so insistent on making friends with the brats that he wouldn’t tell the thugs where the treasure was, and they almost killed him. Evans was itching to grab those kids and hide them away in a padded box for the rest of their lives, but he knew that was no way to raise children either. So instead he watched in silence, praying the two idiot brats would come to their senses sooner rather than later. 

When they finally butted in and saved little Luffy, they had a deep heart to heart, revealing Ace’s insecurities about his existence which just made Evans want to go and coddle them even more. But it was a good sign. It meant that he could finally go and visit them. He had to plan it well. Make it inconspicuous. Maybe hide out in the trash heap for a while and get them to warm up to him by offering small things. Actually. That kinda sounded creepy. Maybe he’d approach the little one first. He’s a good judge of character and the older boys will be overprotective now that they almost got him killed. 

“What do you think Fawkes?” Evans asked the bird perched on the windowsill absentmindedly. 

Fawkes trilled in agreement, then began singing a happy tune as he flew out the window towards the sea. 

Evans was wondering in the forest outside of the Goa Kingdom. He had a plan. He was using kenbunshoku haki to track the boys as they were hunting in the forest. He had decided to make it look like an accident that he came across them, and that he had accidentally wandered too deep into the forest while visiting. They would never know. 

Thinking about kenbunshoku haki, Evans pondered the current language. He wasn’t sure how it came to be, but the world currently was using Japanese as the main language. The weird thing about it was that you’d always see weird elements of other languages thrown in alongside Japanese. Wanted posters, among other things, were written in English. Then the descriptions underneath were written in romaji. It was odd.

His current line of thought distracted Evans from keeping track of the brats. That was until he walks right into the middle of their fight against a tiger. Seeing a new, bigger target, with seemingly less power than the children, the tiger decided that it would pounce on the man standing in-between him and his original dinner. 

Self-preservation instincts kicking in, Evans punched the tiger leaping at him with a haki infused fist, sighing as it flew away somewhere out of his line of sight. 

“COOOL!” Luffy shouted in awe as the tiger flew past the trees. 

Evans sighed. This was not how he planned on this going down. 

“Hey Mister! How’d you do that? Can you teach me? I wanna do that! You just went like, POW! And then the tiger flew like, WOOSH! It was so COOOL!” Luffy continued rambling and his newly christened brothers tried to tug him away from the strange man. 

Deciding to completely trash his previous plan he turned to face the kids. “What are children doing running around in a forest fighting over-sized tigers?”

Ace huffed. “None ya business.” Then turning to his siblings, he said, “Come on. Now we gotta find something else for dinner.”

Slumping in his siblings’ arms, Luffy whined. “But I wanted tiger! Aceeee, you said we could have tiger meat for dinner.”

The boys squabbled for a moment before Evans interrupted. “How about this, I go gab that tiger and cook it up for you, and you tell me why three children who can’t be older than 10 are running around this forest, killing their own food for dinner?”

“No.” Ace said firmly. 

Sabo then decided to speak up for the first time since Evans had arrived. “Ace. It’s late. Luffy’s hungry. Just let the man make our food for us. Then we won’t have to go back to the bandits.”

Ace huffed but didn’t protest anymore. He new they were going to have difficulty finding enough meat to feed all three of them with Luffy as hungry as he is. Their younger brother got even more impulsive when he was hungry, and it made their jobs of keeping him safe even more difficult. 

Turning to face the stranger, Sabo spoke. “If you get the tiger and something else, and cook us dinner, we’ll talk.”

Evans nodded. It seemed fair enough. He’d just kill the bear that’d been following him. And the tiger wasn’t too hard to track down. “Stay here. I’ll be back in 5.”

Sabo nodded and Ace glared while Luffy continued to whine about how hungry he was.

Walking slowly out of the clearing, he shot a quick stunner at the bear, grabbing it and hoisting it onto his shoulder, before sprinting off to where the tiger was laying, still passed out. Groaning at the weight as he threw the tiger over his other shoulder and made his way back to the clearing the boys were in. The animals in the Goa Kingdom were by no means normal-sized. In fact they were likely double the size of your average animal of the same species. Which mean the gigantic animals on his shoulders, more than double his height and triple his body weight, were some form of evil, tortuous weight training, that he tried to avoid at all cost. But knowing he needed to keep his strength up in this world to live as a normal being, he continued to carry their full weight without adding the weightless charm he could have used to make them lighter. 

When he arrived back in the clearing, the boys were fighting each other. Probably something to do about his arrival. Shrugging he threw the animals down in front of the kids. 

“You know how to make a fire?” he asked them, pulling out a knife getting ready to skin the animals. 

Turning to face him, the two older boys nodded while Luffy sat picking his nose.

Motioning to a spot in the middle of the clearing he said, “Start one if you want food faster.”

Ace growled and Sabo nodded, telling Luffy to get up and help them gather wood, the boys set off to work on the fire. 

Evans hummed to himself as he skinned the animals. He tried to do it with care so the furs could be used at a later date. Either for the boys to sell or for them to keep for the winter. He didn’t mind which. He just preferred not to waste anything. He was taught that lesson the hard way many centuries ago. Long before the world flooded. And they said global warming wasn’t real.

The fire was roaring, and the boys sat close to each other as if they were making sure if anything were to attack, they could protect each other. It brought warmth to his heart. He knew their backgrounds too well after his snooping and to see they had formed such a bond in the month after Luffy’s kidnapping was touching.

Speaking up as he set the meat over the fire, Evans asked. “So, are you gonna tell me what you’re doing in the woods now?”

Luffy spoke up, being the most easy-going of the boys, “Gramps left us with shitty mountain-bandits who don’t give us meat and make us do boring chores, so we don’t go there unless its dinner or if Gramps is coming for a visit. Gramps is scary.”

Humming, Evans turned the meat and continued his line of questioning. “And they just let you run about this forest? It’s not the safest place in the world.” 

Ace growled. “You don’t know anything, old man.”

That got a chuckle out of Evans. Even with his astronomical age, he was rarely referred to as an old man due to his appearance. The people who did know his age preferred to annoy him by calling him, kid. It was a refreshing change. 

“You’ve obviously been self-sufficient for most of your lives if you’re this well adapted to the animals being consistently out to kill you in this place. Doesn’t mean I like the idea of kids living here by themselves with barely any protection.”

“We appreciate your concern, sir. But kindly, it’s really none of your business.” Sabo interrupted before Ace could threaten the man making them food. 

Ignoring Sabo’s interruption Evans continued, “If you don’t know how to cook your own food, I am concerned for your health.”

Luffy obviously bored with waiting for the food, started to question the stranger. “So, mister. Can you teach me how you did that cool punch thing?”

Evans smirked. This was his in. “How about I teach you how to fight if you let me teach you basic survival skills? Even if you can fight animals, it doesn’t mean you can fix clothes, cook, and navigate.”

“I don’t need that!” Luffy stated. “I’m gonna be King of the Pirates and I’ll have my crew do those things for me!”

Ace and Sabo threw their hands over their little brother’s mouth.

“Haha. He didn’t mean that.” Sabo said quickly, sweat pouring down his face. 

“Yeah, we don’t want to be pirates,” Ace added on, panic written all over his face. 

Evans laughed. “That’s a big dream there, kid. And it’s great that you’ll have crew to help you with all that. But you don’t want to rely entirely on your crew, do you? What if your navigator gets sick and you need to find an island with medicine to help them, but you don’t know how to get there? As much as you should be able to rely on your nakama, they should be able to rely on you too.”

Luffy stared at the stranger. He hadn’t thought of that before. He treasured nakama as much as he treasured his hat, and if one got sick and he couldn’t help them, that’d be bad. 

“Yosh! Teach me to fight and to navigate!” Luffy said. 

Ace and Sabo sweatdropped, but visibly relaxed. It seemed this man didn’t care if they wanted to be pirates. 

“So, what’s your name? If we agree to let you teach us, we should at least know that.” Ace said warily knowing better than to protest against Luffy. It was almost impossible to change the kid’s mind once it was made. 

“They call me Evans.”

“I’m Sabo. The hot-tempered one is Ace, and the hyperactive one is Luffy. If you try and hurt one of us, you’re dead. Otherwise, please take care of us. It seems we’ll temporarily be in your care.” 

Ace punched Sabo in the ribs and Luffy laughed. 

“Nice to meet you Sabo, Ace, Luffy. I promise not to hurt you outside of training.” Evans said with a small nod. 

Turning the meat over once more and pulling it apart to make sure it was cooked all the way threw, Evans, pulled the meat from the fire and motioned for the boys to take some. In no time, Ace and Luffy were stuffing their faces with more than their body weight in meat, while Sabo was doing a good job at eating with manners while still trying to keep up with the amount of food the D brothers were shoving in their mouths. 

Evans chuckled as he started to eat. The Clan of D’s notorious hunger never does change. Looking at the boys bickering between themselves and they snatched the meat from each other, Evans smiled. As much as he despised waiting, he now knew it was the best option. He could tell this was going to be good for the boys. And maybe, just maybe for him. Though he’d never admit it.


	7. Chapter 7

A loud crash echoed through the Fleet Admiral’s office as Garp came tumbling through the wall. On the other side was an angry-looking man with dark hair and bright green eyes. 

An agitated groan came from the current occupant of the room. “Couldn’t you have at least kicked him through the door instead of the wall? I mean, it’s right next to it.”

Evans looked at the man in annoyance. “Sengoku. I thought we agreed that you were keeping a tighter leash on this idiot.”

“That doesn’t mean you can enter through my wall instead of a door like a normal person.” Sengoku said, developing an angry tick.

Garp laughed. “That’s a great idea! It’d be so cool to make an entrance through a wall instead of a door. I’m gonna do that.”

“NO, YOU’RE NOT!” Evans and Sengoku yelled at the Marine Hero. 

“Eh! But it’d be so cool! I’m gonna do it anyway.” Garp said, picking his nose.

Taking a deep breath, Evans turned to face Sengoku again going back to his original reason for coming. “I told you to keep him busy. I don’t have time to deal with his antics right now and the more irritated I get, the less likely I am to agree to the Marines next request. So, fix it.”

Sengoku turned to Garp, who had somehow gotten ahold of some rice crackers and was happily munching away and then turned back to face Evans. 

“Give me a list of the places you’ll be visiting, and I’ll make sure he’s stationed as far away from you as possible.”

Evans thought on it. He could, but then the marines would know his next moves. Turn out carrying his contracts on him more frequently was a good idea. 

Pulling out a contract, he wrote a new agreement that wouldn’t allow the Marine officer to tell anyone of his location. It was his variation of a Fidelius Charm, but instead of keeping a houses location secret, it kept his whereabouts a secret. Sadly since the innate magic in the current human beings alive was small, they didn’t have enough power to activate the spell by themselves without the help of some runes and contracts. 

“Sign.” He said putting the parchment on Sengoku’s desk.

Pulling out a pen, Sengoku read over the paper. “So this stops me from sharing my knowledge of your location.”

Evans nodded.

“Fair enough,” Sengoku said, signing the paper.

Making several copies, and banishing them to their appropriate locations, Evans smiled. “Garp. Leave.”

“Eh! Why?” Garp whined munching on his crackers. 

“Cause you’re the reason I have to share my moves for the next few years and I don’t want you sneaking off to bother me. So leave.” Evans growled out. 

Whining like a kicked puppy, Garp left the room, making a new hole in the wall right next to the one Evans had kicked him through earlier.

“GARP!” Sengoku yelled after the man.

Sighing, Evans waved his hand, rebuilding the walls and adding some extra protection from any eavesdroppers. 

“So, I want you to keep Garp away from…”

“Yo!” Evans said as he leapt on board Whitebeard’s massive ship.

“INTRUDER! UNKNOWN PERSON ON DECK!” Some random crew member started screaming and panicking when they saw him. 

The crew scrambled for the weapons, ready to leap at the strange person who just landed on their ship. The first division commander flew over from his perch in the crow’s nest and groaned when he saw it was Evans. 

“Arms down. He’s an ally.” Marco said as he landed in front of the man. 

The crew lowered their weapons, but their grips stayed firm as they eyed the new arrival. 

“What are you doing here? You’re three years early.” Marco asked, eyeing the strange man. 

Evans grinned. “Lovely to see you too! It’s been a while. I figured I’d check up on you since you seem a bit more worn out recently. Seem like the rebirth is coming sooner than expected. I wonder how long it’ll last.”

Motioning for Evans to follow him, Marco eyed the man curiously. “Rebirth.” He said with a hint of sarcasm before turning to the nearest crewmate and telling them to inform Pops that he would be talking to Evans in his office. 

Evans laughed. “Boy, you really do know nothing about your zoan.”

Marco growled as he led the man towards his private office, seeing where this conversation was heading, and he wasn’t sure he wanted his siblings to know about it just yet. “It’s not like there are books about it lying around. The only reason I even know I’m a phoenix is because Gol D. Roger heard it from the voice of all things.”

Evans hummed. That was a new one. The voice of all things is what they’re calling natural legilimens now? How fascinating. There was so few of them around, but they did exist and possessed a slightly higher magical aura than anyone else. If one went so far as to have connections to inanimate objects. Hm. He would have to look into this more. 

“So all you know is the name of your zoan and that you have mysterious healing abilities?”

Marco nodded, opening the door to his office and motioning the smaller man inside. 

“Well then, we have a lot to cover before your rebirth. I’ve never met a person who was a phoenix before either, so it’ll be interesting to see how fast you age. Will you become a child again, or will you remain your current visual age? By the current state of your body that’s a possibility. Maybe you’ll become a baby again and grow to this age at an accelerated rate! This might be the most fascinating experiment I’ve done in years.”

Marco glared and the oddly giddy look on Evans’ deceivingly young face. “I’m not some experiment for you to mess around with, yoi.” 

Evans waved his hand while reaching into his satchel grabbing a book on phoenixes out and a pair of all-language glasses for Marco. “You’ll be fine. Besides, even if I know nothing about humans becoming phoenixes and honestly little about phoenixes in general, I’ve spent some time over the last few years brushing up on my overall knowledge of phoenixes. Plus, I have one helping me out. Even if Fawkes has had little contact with other phoenix’s, they’re relatively solitary creature in the wild, Fawkes is still pretty knowledgeable about his own kind.”

Grabbing the book that Evans threw at him while talking, Marco looked down to see an unfamiliar language. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. He opened the book to find yellowing pages and beautiful drawings of different coloured phoenixes.

“That book you hold is Jerimiah Scamander’s book Phoenix Phanatics. While he wasn’t as talented of a magi-zoologist as his great grandfather, Jerimiah dedicated his life to finding information on obscure magical creatures. He was much like his grandmother in that way.”

“What language is this? I’ve never seen anything like it before. How do you even expect me to read it?” March raised his eyebrow, settling into the chair behind his desk. 

Evans tossed him the glasses, jumping onto the seat in front of Marco’s desk. “These will allow you to read it. Just don’t use them for more than two hours at a time with at least a four-hour rest in between. There is a limit to how much they can do without damaging your mind, and your power as a phoenix can’t help you with something like a broken mind.”

Marco nodded, heeding the man’s warning. 

“While you scan that, I might as well explain some basic things to you.” Evans started, knowing that he would have to get into the full aspects of the man’s zoan and fully frustrated with himself that he was idiotic enough to think the fruits were safe in the ocean. “Before I begin on your powers I would like you to know I am entirely uncomfortable with how much power they will give you in this world and I sincerely hope you don’t go against my wishes, else I will hunt you down and lock you away in a box underground for at least five centuries.”

Marco gulped. 

“Now that that’s out of the way, based on the colour of your transformation and how your fire heals, you are not a sea phoenix as I expected, but an air phoenix. What he means is that you have the ability to control the air in your immediate surrounds to your will. Depending on how creative you are with it, and how much control you are able to master, you could be an unstoppable force of power. Then again, that goes for most devil fruit. Unfortunately, you are also likely immortal due to this fruit. Which means I’ll be keeping in touch and making sure you don’t go too power crazy and wreck my peace and quiet. When I say likely immortal, I mean that if I were to try and kill you using the sea, I probably could, but it would only last until your body eventually returns to the shore and you begin to regenerate again. I could also try to kill you with kairoseki, but then as soon as it leaves your body, it will also likely regenerate. Assuming you end up hating immortality as much as I do, we can test these methods in a couple of centuries and see if they work. If you end up being a bat-shit crazy sociopath trying to destroy the whole world, I may try a last-ditch attempt to kill you by removing the fruit from your body. If that doesn’t work, we may try to remove all traces of magic from your body, so the fruit no longer works, and you end up dying. But until that day comes, try not to worry about it.”

Sometime during Evans rant, Marco stopped paging through the book and instead proceeded to stare in horror at the man in front of him. 

“Now, about what you have likely been antagonizing over for the past few years. Your burning day. Now, according to Jerimiah, all phoenixes go through a burning day. The stories of being reborn from the flames are ever-present and you will not be reborn in a mini-tornado as I had hoped when I found you were an air phoenix. The only difference to your burning day is that instead of rising from embers, air should blow away the flames to reveal your reborn state. Given that your human and I have no idea how this will affect your body, I will make sure you have a way to contact me, along with Whitebeard. If you ever contact me outside of that reason, do not expect any more help from me, or to see me ever again. Now, if you get a fatal wound with kairoseki, it also may trigger your burning day early instead of killing you. So, you know, be aware of that. If you start feeling sick or tired, try to injure yourself in some way. If your flames don’t kick in, it’s time for your burning day and you should contact me immediately. Lastly, I apologize for possibly cursing your entire existence. I don’t wish my fate on anyone, and for it have possibly happened due to sheer stupidity on my part, I, just, sorry.”

Marco sat there staring in shock at the man in front of him. He had no clue what to do with all the information he had just been given and he was left with a lot of questions. Mainly to do with how the man could know all these things and how it was his fault Marco had gotten the devil fruit. 

“It’s fine,” Marco said with a slightly confused tone. “But, um, what am I meant to do with this information?” 

Evans sighed leaning back in the seat. “Do what you wish. But I’d appreciate it if I was here for your burning day. If you turn into a baby, I’m not sure your crew would be able to handle you. And even if you would likely age faster than a normal child, I’m not sure how long that ageing process would take. Like I’ve said before. I’ve never dealt with a human becoming a phoenix before.”

Taking off the glasses and placing the book on the desk in front of him, Marco sat up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a lot to think about and the headache he got from the onslaught of information was agitating, to say the least.

“Thank you for this,” Marco said, knowing that he’d have been lost on his impending burning day without the information Evans gave him.

Evans nodded and pulled out a stick from his satchel. “If you need me, break this. You won’t be able to break it on accident. It’s been charmed so that it can only be broken when you intend to break it.”

Marco nodded. 

“Now, I’ve likely left you with a lot to think about, so I’ll make my way to Newgate on my own. I have something I need to talk to him about.”

Getting out of his chair giving a full bow to Evans, Marco once again thanked the man and let him be on his way. Marco was for the first time in a very long time confused about his place in the world and how to deal with the fact that he would likely outlive his family. 

Pulling the book closer to him, Marco flipped the pages to find a picture of a phoenix which looked eerily like his zoan form. Pulling the glasses on, Marco read the passage below the drawing. 

Kukitori is the air phoenix. Known for having a free spirit, Kukitori resides above the oceans never staying in one place for long. Few have ever met Kukitori, and even less have lived to tell the tale. Should you ever try to cage Kukitori, do not expect to live long. Unless you have a free spirit, you will be unlikely to leave any meeting with this phoenix alive. 

Looking down at the page, he felt something call to him. Shaking his head, he sighed, he needed to meditate. This was all too much. 

On the other side of the ship, Evans approached Whitebeard. 

“Newgate. It’s good to see you’re still killing your liver with all that sake.” Evans smirked. 

“Tch. Brat.” Whitebeard rolled his eyes. “I’ll do what I want. Leave my drinking habits alone and tell me what you really came here for.”

Letting his smirk turn into a melancholy smile, Evans replied. “I have a few things I came here for. First, should Marco look like he’s dying, call me with this.” He tossed Newgate an adapted version of a walkie-talkie. “It works like a Den Den Mushi, but I don’t have to give you a number for it and it’ll only contact me. Plus, now it’s more secure than using Den Den Mushi.”

Catching the device tossed at him, Newgate gave Evans a knowing look. “Will do. Now tell me the real reason you came to see me instead of just letting my son give this to me.”

Evans sighed. “I want you to promise me not to kill this brat. And possibly take him in as your son. He’s aiming for your head but honestly, he’s just a bit misunderstood and has a rough time controlling his anger. And it’s not like I care if he lives. I just-“

Newgate chuckled. “I won’t hurt your brat Evans.”

Glaring at the giant man, Evans growled. “He’s not my brat.”

“Whatever you say, kid.” Whitebeard scoffed. “But I won’t kill some misguided brat after my head. Someone like that just needs a home and a family.”

Evans nodded and then turned to leave. Just as he was about to leave the room, he stopped. 

“Thank you.”

“Gurararaarararara. It’s nothing I wouldn’t have done anyways, brat.”

Evans ignored him and continued out the door. He had two brats to get back to and another one to check up on.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been re-written slightly just FYI  
> [May 19, 2020]

“Evans, Evans! Look what I can do!” Luffy yelled at the top of his voice punching an over-sized tree and knocking it down in one hit. 

“Good job Luffy, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what I asked you to work on last time.” Evans sighed at the twelve-year-old’s energy. 

Luffy pouted. “But I knocked down that huge tree!”

“And how is your control coming along? If you punch everything with the same force you punched that tree, someone might get hurt.” Evans replied. 

A rustle came from the trees above them when Ace leapt down, aiming a haki covered pole at Evans’ head.

Catching the pole and twisting it so Ace was flipped and thrown onto the ground, Evans smirked. “You’re still 100 years too young to even attempt to injure me.”

Ace groaned, slowly getting up from the ground, rubbing his back, while Luffy laughed away in the background at his older brother’s misfortune. 

“But you’ve obviously been working on your haki much more than Luffy, so congratulations. You get to sleep in tomorrow while Luffy and I play ‘avoid the pebbles.’” 

Luffy whined while Ace grinned at that statement knowing that he’d need that sleep in with Evans training. Luffy agreeing for them to be trained by Evans may have been both the best and the worst choice ever made. Evans made sure that the boys knew how to navigate the Blues, the Grand Line, and the Calm Belts with ease. He even took them on quick trips to the Grand Line to test them on their knowledge. Even if he trained them into the ground, at least they learnt haki and cool fighting techniques. 

When Evans was there, their day would be spent doing runs around the island with weights on and if they weren’t fast enough, they’d play ‘avoid the pebbles’ with even more weights to train their haki. Then they would move onto the obstacle course before lunch. If they didn’t beat their time from the previous run, they would have to hunt and cook their own food for lunch and then complete the course with weights after lunch. If they made it through, beating their score, they got to eat the amazing food Evans made for them and try to complete it even faster after lunch. If they failed the second time, they had to study for two extra hours instead of having free time after dinner. Then before the 4 hours of study on whichever subject Evans picked, they would complete 25 spars with each other, and 25 spars against Evans himself. After they studied and had dinner, they would sit down and take a quiz on what they had learnt, and if they failed the quiz, they would have to wake up extra early and play ‘avoid the pebbles’ with an extra weight for each question they got wrong. 

All in all, Evans was tough with his teaching and even tougher to impress, but when they did, it was the best. They would get the best feast with more food than they could eat. And they’d get the feeling of making Evans proud. Why that mattered, Ace didn’t know, but the feeling he got when it did happen was one of the best feelings he’d ever had. Right up there with the feeling, he got when he became sworn brothers with Luffy and Sabo. But he’d never let anyone know that. 

Evans smirked at the two kids bickering in front of him over who was stronger. They had come a long way from when he first met them in person. Over the last five years, he would come to the island every other month for a week, making sure to avoid Garp and train the boys in any way possible. With their ambitions, they would need the training he was giving them. He may have gone a bit overboard with the haki and weight training, but at least now they were able to protect themselves from whatever ‘training’ Garp threw their way. 

During the first year that he was training the kids, the blonde brat, Sabo, had gone off and joined the Revolutionaries after being shot down trying to escape the island during a Celestial Dragon visit. Dragon picked the kid up, saving him from death, but Sabo was left with amnesia, unable to remember his life before. 

Not long after the incident, Evans visited the kids to find the two dark-haired brats mourning their dead brother. He knew better than to think Sabo was actually dead. He had placed monitoring charms on all three of them and he would know if any of them were in a life-threatening situation they couldn’t be saved from. When he made the original charms to only deal with life-threatening situations, Luffy’s one went off 3x a day when he wouldn’t stop jumping into animals’ mouths. So, adaptions had to be made. Adaptions which took him painful amounts of research through his old tombs hidden in a vault under his island. Adaptions which took him more time than it was worth. And no. He didn’t put in so much effort cause he was attached to the brats. How dare you insinuate that. 

A month after the Dragon incident, dutifully named after both the attacker and the saviour of the blonde child, he returned to the island with a letter from their supposedly deceased brother, and the two broke down. It was the first time he had to comfort the children. He hoped it was his last. He wasn’t going to get attached to the kids. It wasn’t his place to have to comfort them. And even if he was attached, maybe more attached than he had been to anyone since magic was reabsorbed into the earth, he would never admit it. He had already fallen too deep to ever admit something like that. 

Sighing to himself, Evans decided to break up the quarrelling brothers, “I hope you read the books I left you with. We’re heading back to your hideout and I don’t doubt that you remember the consequences for wrong answers.” He said with a sadistic grin.

The two dark-haired boys gulped. They knew the consequences too well. And as always, it was obvious they had slacked off on their homework and they knew they were going to pay for it when training came in the morning. They resigned themselves to following their tutor back to their home in the trees.

His usual week of training with the brats was over. He would be heading off to train the other one soon. And he was running out of training for the kids. There wasn’t much more he could teach them physically unless they wanted to pick up another method of fighting.

The brats that had almost come to be like children to him, though he would never admit it, and he had decided that it was time to expand their training. He had been planning it for months, making sure that he had everyone lined up, and even going to the lengths of getting Sengoku to monitor Garp. He had decided to take them on a training trip with him to fight some actual people. Training was good and all, but without experience, training can be all for nought. 

Evans looked at the two boys sitting in their ‘war room’ as they liked to call it. As you walked into the room, there was a bookshelf built into the back wall with a table sitting in front of it. Surrounding the low sitting table were pillows to sit on and numerous animal skins which weren’t cleanly cut enough to make it to the markets. On the center of a low sitting, table was a large map of the island which marked where their many treasures were buried and where their favoured nobles and pirates to pickpocket lived, and of course the borders of Luffy Country, Ace Country, and Dan Dan Country, with the treehouse being their meeting place for anything important. It had taken him years, but Evans finally got them to understand the importance of strategy. Whether or not they stuck to a plan didn’t matter as long as they had a solid strategy to their never-ending chaos, they would dramatically improve any chance at succeeding. 

Evans sat down at the table, making the two boys look up from the books they were reading. After that first quiz he had given them this week, they had definitely buckled down on their studying in order to avoid Evans insane training. As expected, they hadn’t studied and instead of their 10 extra weights for laziness, since they got half of the questions on the quiz wrong, they got 10x their usual wights.

“You’re coming with me for a month every three months until Ace and Sabo turn 17 so you get some real-life experience. There’s no point to all this training if I can’t trust you to use it in a real situation. I’ll be back in two months once I pick up Sabo. So don’t go slacking off.”

Luffy and Ace just stared at him in shock. They had never thought their training would come to an end like this. Not that it was really ending, but to leave the island to fight before they turned 17. 

“I get to be captain, right?” Luffy said. 

Ace growled. “No. I’m gonna be captain. I’m the oldest!”

“But I’m gonna be pirate king so I have to be captain!” Luffy shouted back. 

Evans cleared his throat, interrupting the brother’s quarrel. “Actually, I’ll be captain. None of you will be captain of any ship until you set out by yourselves at 17.”

They both sighed but, agreed to his terms knowing from the years under his tutelage that arguing would just cause them more pain and suffering when training came again. Their mentor never forgets and did they have to learn that the hard way. 

Evans smiled. “I’ll be back with Sabo soon, but don’t think that no more training on the island means you can slack off. If I come back and Sabo beats you two with ease, you’ll be getting extra training while we’re at sea.”

They both nodded, knowing not to take the threat lightly. 

“See you later!” Luffy yelled as Evans jumped out of their treehouse. 

“Bye old man!” Ace yelled. 

Evans waved without looking back. He had other things to do before he went to get Sabo and to make sure he was on time he would need to hurry. 

Evans arrived at the Revolutionaries Headquarters like usual, by teleporting directly into Dragon’s private office at 5pm sharp on a Wednesday. The first time he had come here, it took him eight hours to convince Dragon to let him see Sabo, and another two to fix his amnesia and remaining injuries so that Sabo could explain who he was to the revolutionary leader. 

After the secrecy contracts had been signed, he explained the situation in full to Dragon. Some bourbon and long explanations about how Evans himself came to be, Dragon finally relaxed. Evans found the man entirely amusing. After knowing most of the man’s ancestors and practically raising his child for the past five years, Evans was completely confused. There were very few people in the Monkey family who Evans would consider to be serious people. He had met all three of them and found them all to be rather unsettling. Dragon was no exception. What was even funnier was that once he was drunk enough, the man wore a constant grin on his face like most of his ancestors. The only difference was that his grin was terrifying and made you think he was about to murder you. 

After a long night, and an even longer day recovering from horrible hangovers, the two men came to an agreement that Evans would train Sabo for 5 days every month if he would do them the odd favour of being a mail carrier. Evans reluctantly agreed to life as a mailman and then proceeded to train Sabo the same way he trained Luffy and Ace. The things he did for those kids.

“Punctual as usual.” A deep voice came from the chair in front of him. 

It was Dragon’s usual greeting to the odd immortal. He remembered Evans from the short trips he would make to see his father when he was a kid, but there was no solid information on the man and even after years of searching, there was still nothing. Dragon found the whole situation aggravating. He knew why there was no information on the man. The man kept his secrets guarded under a magical lock and key. But that didn’t stop him from wanting to find out who else knew about the man. 

Evans hummed, acknowledging the man, before taking a seat in front of Dragon’s desk. “I have a proposition for you.” 

“Which is?” Dragon asked curiously. It was always fascinating to hear that a man like Evans needed him for something. Especially since he knew that the man could take what he wanted with ease. 

“Instead of training Sabo monthly, I plan to take him out to sea to get some hands-on training. He and his brothers have a pact not to set out to sea until they turn 17, which they’re honouring, but I would prefer it if they left with some real-life experience.” Evans explained. 

Dragon nodded. He could see the benefits of it, and knowing Evans, he would have a way to conceal their identities. But he wasn’t sure if he wanted the kid he chose to be his successor gone from HQ for so long. The blonde ex-noble had a good head on his shoulders and a strong will with the aura of a great leader. There was no doubt that his name would be known throughout the seas one day, and while he knew the kid’s original dream was to be a pirate, he could see that the kid would never truly leave the Revolutionary Army. The real question was what Sabo would do when he set out to sea. Would he set out as a pirate reporting to the Revolutionaries or would he leave as a full-fledged agent?

“How long are you planning to take him?” Dragon asked, mulling over the situation. “I’m not entirely comfortable with my successor being gone for long periods of time.”

“Three months a year for the next two years. I’ll take him for a month at a time.”

Dragon sighed. It was longer than he would’ve wanted, but given that it was only 3x a year, he could deal with it. “I’ll let you take him. Just make sure nothing happens to him or my son. I’m entrusting them to you.”

Evans snorted. “You also ‘entrusted’ your son to Garp. I’m not sure how much of a bright idea that was. Who even was the kid’s mother? Couldn’t the family have taken in the kid?”

Dragons demeanour changed as he sat back in his chair, taking the glass of whiskey that sat on his desk with him. “She died during childbirth and was an orphan. Most of the people she considered family were, and still are, active pirates. While they may have been a better choice than my father, I wasn’t comfortable with my child being raised on the Grand Line.”

Evans bowed his head in respect but made no move to apologize for the brash question. He had lived long enough to know that anything said now would tarnish the memory of the young woman. 

“You can take Sabo.” Dragon spoke up, deciding to cut off the conversation. “I assume you want to complete his usual training before it starts so go find him and tell him about your plans.”

Evans nodded, walking out of the man’s office thinking about how he was going to test the most book-smart of his current pupils. 

Sabo was happy with his life in the Revolutionary Army. Not long after arriving, he decided to give up on being a pirate. He had found a new dream. A dream to make the world a better place, rid of the nobles he was forced to share blood with. They were awful people who needed to realize that they were not above any other form of sentient life. And he would do anything he could to make sure that happened. 

After recovering from his amnesia, Sabo wrote to his brothers every month. When he received the first reply from them, complete with a death threat and multiple tear marks, along with the change in writing every five seconds when Luffy decided he wanted to add something, Sabo was relieved. Relieved that his brothers didn’t hate him for breaking their promise. Relieved that they were still brothers. Even if they were apart, they were never alone. It was sad that he couldn’t be with them, but he decided he would live a life with no regrets and joining the Revolutionary Army was one of the best accidental decisions he had ever made in his life. 

His usual 5-day training with Evans had just come to an end and something was off. The man seemed to be hiding something throughout the whole week and it was putting Sabo on edge. If his mentor didn’t start explaining soon…

“This is the last time we’ll train here,” Evans said from where he was sitting at the table across from him. 

Sabo looked up from his current pondering, confused and hurt. “What do you mean this is the last time? Why are you leaving? Did I do something wrong?”

Evans sighed. “I’m not leaving. We’ll just be training differently until you and Ace are 17. Instead of training once a month, you and your brother are coming on month-long trips to sea three times a year. I’ve decided that you’ve all had enough training. What you need now is experience.”

Sabo nodded in understanding and anticipation. “When do we leave?”

Evans laughed. “I’ll be back in about a month to pick you up before we head to your brothers. Don’t slack off on your training though. I’ll know.”

Sabo nodded eagerly and bounced in his seat. “Can I go tell Koala?”

Evans chuckled and nodded, letting the young teen run off and tell his friend. He would see the kid in a month. He would survive without a proper farewell. Evans still had a couple more things he had to do before they left and he needed to make sure old Senny was keeping Garp away.

After Evans had picked up Sabo from the Revolutionaries, they headed off to sea in his old ship. He hadn’t used it for over 300 years, but it was still in good shape thanks to magic. To comfortably run the ship, you really needed 5 people. And he could run it with magic no problem. But it was easier to just stick to his boat. Unless he was challenging his young students who he knew would struggle to man a 5-person boat with only three of them. 

Actually, thinking back on it, the boat was probably his old fighting pal’s way of telling him to get some friends. But Evans wasn’t too interested in the whole friend’s thing, so he stuck to his small boat for the most part. Oh well. 

When the ship arrived on the shore of Dawn Island, Luffy and Ace came running to the shore, leaping onto the boat before he had even docked, tackling Sabo in the process. After a heart-warming reunion between the brothers, Evans motioned for them to hop off the boat. 

Evans smiled melancholically at the curious looks the boys were giving him. “We have some things to talk over and I wanted to wait 'til I had all of you together, so I didn’t have to repeat myself.”

The boys nodded chatting between themselves. Catching up on what had happened over the years. 

When they reached the treehouse, Sabo was shocked. They still had his flag flying high next to his brothers’ and the ASL flag. When they got inside, he saw that they had split of Sabo Country, which was fair enough, but instead of taking him off the map entirely, he had his own island called Sabo Land off to the side. 

After the boys settled down around the table, Evans looked at them with sadness in his eyes. This could be the last time he would see them happy, cause there was no doubt they would be angry at him for keeping secrets. People always were. 

Evans took a deep breath, “Before we set out, I have to tell you some things about me.”

The brothers looked at their mentor curiously. While the man was known to have his serious moments, he was giving off an ominous vibe and they were unsure what to think about it.

“I have special abilities which allow me to perform impossible things. It’s not a devil fruit and before I explain more, I need you to sign these contracts.”

Ace, Sabo, and Luffy stare at the man with hurt looks. 

“I thought you trusted us,” Luffy said, his face unusually sad. 

Evans sighed. He knew this was coming. He had made sure that all of the kids understood the importance of contracts, especially since someone out there could make magically binding ones if they had the right devil fruit and used their imagination. To ask them to sign a contract is like saying he didn’t trust them enough to protect his secrets from the world. And them not having his full trust would be heartbreaking to them. This is why he avoids people.

“It’s not to protect me. It’s to protect you.” 

Ace scoffed. “Yeah right.” Obviously more hurt than he was letting on.

Sabo just stared at the man with distrust. 

“If someone were to find out about my abilities, and found I had ties to you, they would use you to find out any information on me and then proceed to use you to blackmail me into doing what they want. This contract will prevent anyone from being able to connect any dots between our persons. Even if you were to mention my name to someone who knew me, they wouldn’t be able to guess that I am the same person.”

Giving a scathing look, Ace asked. “How’s that even possible when you don’t have a devil fruit. What even are these stupid powers of yours? Oh right! You won’t tell us./”

Evans looked at Ace, guilt pouring out of his eyes. “I can’t tell you unless you sign the papers.”

Luffy looked at the man he considered a father figure sitting in front of him. He knew that Evans was a good person. And he knew that Evans would never do anything to actually harm them. Even if Evans didn’t trust them with his secret, Luffy knew that he was trying to do what was right by them. 

Grabbing the paper and the pen, Luffy messily signed his name at the bottom and shoved it back towards his mentor, still frowning. 

Sabo sighed. If Luffy was in, he was in too. Even after five years, Sabo could tell that Luffy was still a good judge of character and he’d like to think that he knew Evans well enough, and trusted him well enough, to know he wouldn’t do anything to harm them, even if Evans didn’t trust them. 

Ace looked at Luffy trying to read what was going on in his younger brother’s head, before giving up and deciding to follow by example. 

“You all should really read contracts before signing them. Even if I’m the one giving them to you. But I’m glad to know you still trust me enough to sign the contracts without reading them.” Evans said. 

Sighing, letting some of his walls drop, Evans continued to explain himself. “Before I start, I need you guys to wait until the end to ask questions. This is probably the most I’ve told anyone in a long time, and even though I’m not entirely sure why I’m doing it, I know that if you interrupt, I won’t be able to finish.”

The kids nodded, understanding the sincerity and seriousness in his voice. 

“As you’ve probably guessed in the last few years of knowing me, I don’t age. I was alive long before the world changed to be the one you know now. I’m not sure of my actual age anymore, so I couldn’t tell you, but I promise you I am by far the oldest person alive on earth.”

The boys’ eyes widened as they listened to their mentor’s story. 

“I was born a wizard, an extinct version of human beings who are able to use magic to their will. Centuries after my birth, magic was dying and the only way to save it was to send it back into the earth. At that point, the world was drowning and not much land was left. Right before the last of the world was swallowed by the ocean, me and some friends of mine channelled magic into the earth on a small island with a lone tree. I was the only one left. When human life began again, everyone was born with a small amount of magical energy. Not enough to use magic freely, but enough to be able to bend reality to match your will. Enough to use what’s now called Haki. To make those contracts you signed work, I can use the small amount of magic inside of you to tie your soul to an agreement that will draw upon your magic and the runes in this agreement to make this possible. Now, very few people know the truth about magic, and I keep it that way for a reason. I’m immortal. For the last millennia, I’ve avoided getting myself tangled in anyone’s business. I don’t really know why I decided to take you kids under my wing, and it’s gone a lot farther than I’d like, but there’s nothing I can do about that now.”

Taking a deep breath, Evans continued to the real reason he had to explain himself. “To make sure none of you get a bounty put out in your names, get hunted for being associated with me, or just, in general, get a name for yourselves before you’re 17, I’ll be putting a glamour on you when I come and pick you up for training. The glamour will change your looks so that you are unrecognizable. Even with the changed looks, you will be expected to wear a cloak and a hood any time we are on an island. I will also be glamoured so no one will be able to tell my identity. We will not be going out to sea as pirates but as bounty hunters. I don’t enjoy pillaging, and to be able to feed your bottomless pits of stomachs, I need the cash we get from bounty hunting. Any extra cash we receive will be put into a pirate fund for you based on how much you contributed to the fight.”

Taking a deep breath, Evans quickly carried on, rushing through his last words. The ones that would hurt the most to say.

“If you have any questions, you can ask me now. I understand if you don’t trust me anymore and you never want to see me again. I’ll leave you guys alone and you’ll never have to see me again. If after what you have heard you no longer want to go, I will understand. Keeping something this big a secret probably hurt you. But It’s been too long since I spent this much time with anyone. Actually, you know, I’ll just take my leave now. You guys will be fine without me and eventually, all I do is bring people pain.”

When Evans started standing up and finally looked to see the faces of the kids, he was confused to see a teary-eyed Luffy, a depressed-looking Sabo and a guilty-looking Ace. Why on earth would they react like that?

What happened next shocked Evans to the core. 

Luffy threw his arms across the table and proceeded to fling himself at Evans, rubber arms winding around the man’s body, trapping his arms against his side, knocking the man off his feet and back onto the floor. 

“You’re not alone anymore Dad.” 

Evans tensed in the arms of the young teen. It had been a long, long time since he had been hugged and an even longer time since he had been called Dad.

The boys all knew what it was like to be alone. It was what brought them together as a family in the first place. And if their mentor, the person they had come to see as a father figure, was alone. It was the least they could do to make sure he wasn’t anymore. Cause being alone hurts more than anything else.

Ace slowly shuffled his way over to join the hug, Luffy’s arms going back to their normal length so he could throw his arms around them both. 

“I don’t like the idea of having a father. But, if I get to choose one, I guess you would be the best thing I could have.” Ace muttered into Evans shirt. “Don’t think we’re not setting out to sea with you cause you have some weird power and can’t die. That’s stupid. 

Sabo smiled at Ace’s remark. He was still horrible at showing his emotions. Joining his brothers in hugging their newly dubbed father, he said. “I never liked my real family. They didn’t even treat me like a person, I was just a commodity. But I decided that I can choose who my family is, who my brothers are, and now, I choose you to be our dad. You’ve raised us and cared for us more than anyone else in the world has. No one deserves the title more than you do.”

Evans last walls collapsed. Fawkes, who had been waiting outside spying on his companion from the trees came flying down and perched himself on Evans head as tears escaped the man’s eyes. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. They were meant to reject him like everyone else so he could go back to living his happily isolated life from the world. Not decided to adopt him into their mismatched family. 

Evans felt his arms wrap around the young teens, pulling them closer. 

“Thank you.” He whispered so softly, that no one should have been able to hear. 

But magic had always favoured him, and the sentiment reached the brothers’ ears and their arms wrapped around him tighter and they collapsed onto the floor of the treehouse floor, eventually falling asleep in a pile, knowing that their family was complete.


	9. Chapter 9

Evans was perched on top of the mast of the Moby Dick, breeze blowing against his face which stared out towards the vast ocean surrounding him. Below him, he heard people panicking and running about like headless chicken. He just continued to stare out to sea, ignoring the idiots.

“How’d you get here, yoi?” a voice spoke from behind him. 

Evans scoffed. “You should know better than to ask those questions by now.”

A man with flaming wings for arms and pineapple-like hair hummed, settling himself down on top of the roof of the lookout situated just bellow Evan’s perch. 

The continued to stand in silence, enjoying the calming sounds of the ocean below. 

After a few minutes, Evans spoke up with a sigh, “I’ve heard rumours.” 

Marco turned to face the immortal with a curious look. 

“Next time you’re in Sabaody keep a lookout for a character named Blackbeard operating in the black market. I’ve heard some unsettling things and thought it would be best to give you fair warning.”

The blonde hummed, thinking to himself. The Whitebeard pirates never operated in the black market. It was one of their rules. Even as pirates, they had their own code and morals. While Whitebeard himself had not always abided by them in the past, he made sure his crew did. Besides, the Whitebeard Pirates had their own internal underground market for themselves and their allies, they didn’t need anything more. But the fact that Evans had come to warn them about it meant it was likely someone on their crew had been operating behind their backs. 

An uneasy feeling settled in his stomach. “Someone on our crew then.”

Evans neither confirmed nor denied the man’s claim, opting to stare at the horizon. 

“I’ll look into it. Pops should still have some of his old contacts from before he was captain.”

Evans hummed. “Do as you wish. I gave up playing God a long time ago. What you do with the information doesn’t impact me.”

This time Marco scoffed. “You’ll never escape playing God. In all senses of the word, you basically are one.”

Turning to glare at his acquaintance, Evans growled. “I have. It’s the reason I avoid leaving my island. I don’t want attachments. I don’t want responsibilities to the whole world. I just want to live out my life in relative peace and quiet. The only reason I’m still here and not back on my island is because I fucked up and I want to make sure my mistakes don’t come back and haunt me more than they already have.”

Marco raised his hands in defeat, rolling his eyes at the moody immortal. Looking down at his crewmates gathered below on the deck, staring at the top of the mast, curious to see what was happening between the mysterious person and their first commander. 

“The crew is getting angsty. Care to come down and ease their worries?” Marco asked. 

Evans shrugged, hoping down to stand on the roof of the lookout to stand next to Marco. “I guess I could come down. I have some information I should hand to your captain in person.”

Marco nodded, jumping off the roof of the lookout, Evans quickly following, both landing softly on the main deck of the ship. 

“Lower the weapons.” One of the commanders, Jozu if Evans remembered correctly, shouted at the crew after seeing who exactly had landed on their ship. 

The crew tentatively lowered their weapons but were obviously still on guard against the stranger.

Evans nodded to himself in approval at the crews’ action. There is never a good reason not to be on guard, especially around someone you don’t know. 

“We’re heading to see Pops,” Marco said in a bored drawl, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “If I come back and you’re not doing your work, you’re swimming beside the ship for 2 hours.” 

Knowing not to mess with Marco, the entire crew went back to work, leaving the two acquaintances to themselves.

Strolling across the deck towards the old man’s office, Evans and Marco fell into a comfortable silence, the noise of a working ship lulling in the background of their minds.

Evans had found in his millennia on Earth that history liked to repeat itself. Sometimes slightly too ironically. Honestly, Ivankov is just a rip-off of Dr. Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show. The world needs to get more original. Especially when he considered all the history behind pirating from centuries before he was born. It all just seemed to circle around. He had the history books hidden away to prove it.

After Evans’ third failed marriage, he realized that he wasn’t getting any younger. It was then that he decided to go around and collect the largest library known to man. The library he still owns hidden far beneath his small island containing expanded trunks filled with every book he was able to get his hands on. Including hard drives of digital copies of the books he was unable to get his hands on, along with most books made in the 21st century and any book printed after 2076, when printing physical books became illegal in most countries due to supply shortages.

When he first heard there was a man named Marshall D Teach, he got suspicious. The world loved to repeat itself, especially when it came to world-changing figures, and a man named Teach with a menacing aura and a bushy black beard, something gave Evans the feeling that it couldn’t be a coincidence.

Marco pushed open the door to his captain’s office after a quick knock on the door.

“Pops. Evans has some information I don’t think you’ll like.”

Evans sighed, reaching into the small satchel that hung from his shoulder, and pulled out a folder with information about a man, codename: Blackbeard.

“It seemed suspicious and I don’t believe in coincidences. Plus, now I won’t owe you in the future for our agreement.” Evans muttered tossing the folder. 

Whitebeard sat up in his chair as he opened the folder and read its contents. 

“I don’t believe this.”

“You don’t have to,” Evans responded with a shrug. “I’m just trying to keep myself debt-free. You do what you want with that info. Toss it for all I care. Just don’t come crying to me when something happens.”

“Tch.” Whitebeard tossed the folder down on his desk, narrowing his eyes at the offending sheets of paper. No one ever wanted to hear that one of their kids could be a traitor, but he would keep an eye out just in case. In the many years, Newgate had known the man, Evans had never been wrong.

Marco gave his captain a look, making sure that he knew they would talk later about what was in that folder. 

Whitebeard sighed as his eldest son, nodding slightly in resignation. Marco was a stubborn man when he wanted to be. 

“Oh, by the way, I’m taking Marco for a week,” Evans said casually. 

“What!?” Marco and Newgate’s heads swivelled to face the short man. 

Evans stuffed his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunching in slightly. “He’ll have his burning day in four days, and I want to see what state he’s in right after. I doubt you want a baby Marco on your ship in the middle of the New World. And I want to know if he’ll actually turn into a baby. A human phoenix hybrid has never existed before. I rarely see things like that!”

Whitebeard shook his head at the immortal’s antics. “If you must for his safety, I’ll allow it.”

“Pops!” Marco whined. 

“But,” Whitebeard continued. “You have to wait until tomorrow to take him so he can get everything in order. He’s usually the one running everything on this ship for a reason.”

Evans sighed as if it pained him to wait that long but begrudgingly agreed. “I’m not leaving between now and then though. It’s too much energy to leave and come back in less than a day.”

Marco whined again at his lack of say in the matter, while Newgate chuckled. 

“Marco, get Kingdew to set up the guest room and let the chefs know they’ll have an extra mouth to feed tonight.” 

With a sigh and a nod, Marco agreed, making his way out the door, letting Evans know that he would be expected in the dining hall at 630. 

When the door closed behind Marco, Evans quickly cast some privacy charms, then continued to move forward and situate himself in the chair in front of Newgate’s desk. 

“I believe it’s Marshall D Teach,” Evans said grimly. 

Whitebeard nodded. “While I hate to admit it, it matches the files.”

Evans continued on, “According to my intel, he’s after the yami yami no mi. But considering that I took that fruit out of commission after finding out about Marco, it’s no longer available for use by anyone. If that is his goal, he’s probably on your crew for a better chance at finding it. I’m not sure how long he’ll last searching for the fruit though. He may never be a threat to the crew since he’ll never be able to get that fruit. Or he may just snap one day. It’s your choice in the end whether or not you act on this info.”

Newgate sighed. “I’ve been neglecting that side of a pirate’s life. I like to keep my family out of it for this reason exactly, but I guess I may need to get eyes on the inside again.”

“The revolutionary army is always happy to trade information,” Evans said with a cheeky grin, letting the privacy wards he cast fall. “Now, tell me some blackmail material from your old crew. Most of them are still out there and a couple of them need to be messed with a little.”

“Guraguragura!” Whitebeards laugh rang throughout the room as lips turned into a grin. 

“Who’d you want to hear about first?”

\-----

Evans stuck his tongue out at the self-proclaimed King of Pranks in front of his as he evaded yet another one of the cook’s stupid practical jokes. 

“How?” Thatch yelled in frustration at the man calming eating breakfast across from him. 

Evans’ eyes twinkled as his mouth twitched into a smirk. 

“Just because it’s been a while since my hay days doesn’t mean I’m not the heir to the Marauders’ title.” 

Thatch groaned as his brothers laughed. 

“How is it that you evade every one of Thatch’s pranks, Mr Evans?” Izo asked. 

Evans looked towards the man dressed in a woman’s kimono. These pirates, while rambunctious, quickly accepted his need for privacy and were fast to involve him in their hijinks. He appreciated the friendly atmosphere he had experienced over the past 15 hours with the crew. Maybe he would come visit from time to time. Mostly just to check up on his fellow probable immortal but seeing the idiots couldn’t hurt. Neither would reclaiming the Marauders’ title. 

“Just a little bit of magic,” Evans smirked as a plan to fuck with the goat loving idiot came into his head. 

Thatch whined again, making his way out of the dining hall, likely going to try and fit in one last attempt at a prank before the man left. 

“So, Evans,” Namur spoke. “What exactly are you doing with our brother? I know we were told it’s to do with his devil fruit, and Pops trusts you, but we worry about each other. People who hurt our family don’t live long to tell the tale; you know?”

Evans' eyes narrowed at the poorly concealed threat, “I happen to be a bit of an expert on phoenixes and unfortunately as magnificent creatures, as they are, their powers do come with a downside. They tend to be reborn every so often, requiring a cool-down period for them to be able to use any powers during this time. As Marco’s transformation is due to a devil fruit, I’m unsure how this will apply to him, but I do know that the rebirth is due in a few days and I doubt you would want an incapacitated member of your crew on board were you to have any major battles.”

The fishman begrudgingly backed off with a grunt, acknowledging Evans actions as being more helpful than harmful. 

Atmos came up behind Evans and gripped his shoulder causing him to tense up.

“I assume you have a den den mushi?” the large man mentioned. 

Evans nodded, moving so the man’s grip on his shoulder was no more. 

“Here’s our ship's number.” The man passed him a piece of paper. “I know you have a way to contact Pops, but I know us brothers would feel better if you had a way to contact us as well in case anything unexpected happens.”

Giving the large man a small smile and a nod, Evans accepted the paper. He could understand where they were coming from. He didn’t think he would like anyone left in charge of his boys being unable to contact him. Of course. When he says his boys, he means his kids from his first relationship. Not the ones in the East Blue. What? No. 

Rolling his shoulders and pushing his chair out, Evans picked up his plate and headed to the kitchen to drop it off. “I should finish clearing up any last-minute details with Whitebeard and then I’ll grab Marco and we’ll be off.”

The remaining commanders of the crew still eating breakfast nodded, waving the man off with a ‘see you later.’

\-----

Evans stood at the bow of the ship, waiting for Marco to join him. He was deciding how they were going to travel to his island. On one hand, he could apparate them, but he wasn’t sure how that may affect the burning day. So, he was left with travelling by boat, which he didn’t bring with him, so maybe not. Or he could fly. Play it off as a zoan? Yeah, that could work. 

Shrinking his satchel to a charm he could put on his necklace, made sure everything was secure. It would be a long flight. Turning around, he saw Marco walking towards him with a small backpack. 

“That’s all you need?” Evans asked. 

Nodding his head, Marco’s usually bored expression turned slightly inquisitive. “How are we travelling?”

Evans smirked looking at the Whitebeard pirates surrounding them to see Marco off, “We’ll fly.”

Evans proceeded to change into his animagus form. A thunderbird. Fitting if the old Native American magicals were to be believed. 

Gasps and whispers flooded the ship, while Marco shook his head. 

It was a well-known rumour at this point that Monkey D. Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army, was the holder of the thunderbird devil fruit. A rumour Evans himself knew to be true. Thankfully, that was not an immortal being, so Evans didn’t need to worry about the man. 

With a happy trill at the success of his latest prank, Evans flew a circle around Marco, trying to get the man to follow him. 

Giving his family a quick salute, Marco waved his family farewell, promising to be back soon and continued to turn into his phoenix form and follow his fellow mythical bird off towards the sun.


End file.
